Published December 13, 2024

Heavy-handed editing strikes me as joyless. Who would want to embody the worst stereotypes and misconceptions about what editors do? Who would want to take the enjoyment out of communicating?

We have the wonderful gift of language to use to make a better world. Why close off so much of it to writers and other editors?

I think many of the people who prefer to work that way have never had more inclusive, loving, liberating, conscious editing and writing modeled for them. That’s why I’m so grateful to know and follow the best editors out there who continue to teach me so much. They will make the world a better place. In fact, they already are. I can say this after more than a decade of being inspired by them.

As a newspaper consultant said decades ago, sometimes you have to leave the dullards (and the wannabe grammar scolds) in the dust. My squad and I agree.

A version of this post appears on LinkedIn.

♥

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