How to Rewrite Like an Editor
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
We usually talk about self-editing as a way to improve some aspect of our draft that isn't working well. But what about the opposite approach?
We treat our finished passages like solved equations. The wording clicked, the rhythm landed, so the work is done. But writing isn't finished just because it works; it's finished because you stopped imagining other ways it could work. A great strategy to complete a draft, to be sure, but a lousy way to understand and improve our writing craft.
How about a new approach?
Take a passage you're proud of, something that feels finished, and rewrite it. Not "polish it." Not "cut 10%." Rewrite it as if someone else wrote it first and you're their hostile, talented editor who disagrees with every instinct they had.
The mechanics are straightforward. Find a passage where you nailed the tone, the pacing, the voice. Then identify its core stance: what it's doing, emotionally and structurally. Is it close and intimate? Rewrite it cold and panoramic. Is it ironic and detached? Go sincere and a little raw. Is the narrator knowing, in control, hovering above the action? Hand the wheel to someone who has no idea what's coming. Who is speaking now, and what do they want? If your original was trying to earn trust, maybe this version is trying to unsettle. If your original was moving fast, this one lingers.
You're not looking for the "better" version. You're looking for a version that makes the first one argue back. Rewriting from a different stance helps manufacture some genuine critical distance.
Some of your original choices will suddenly look inevitable in a way they didn't before. You'll understand why you made them, not just that you made them. Other choices will look lazy, or timid, or like you defaulted to what you always do when you didn't know what else to do. Both discoveries are useful.
