An impressive amount (or what my daughter would call a "crap ton") of what I write ends up n the editing room floor.
To get a headline or opening line right, I write 5 or 10 variations and then pick the best of the bunch ... or mix and match words from a couple and patch 'em together ... or, unsatisfied, write 5 or 10 more and start the process over again.
This process is a goulash of writing, thinking, and editing.
Example:
Here's the first step for writing the headline/first line for a piece on editing:
Editing is just writing’s awkward next morning. You wake up, look at what you made, and whisper, “Oh… wow. Okay.”
Editing: because every writer deserves the humbling experience of realizing they are not, in fact, a genius.
Editing is where you meet the version of yourself who thought that sentence was a good idea.
Editing is where your brilliant ideas go to find out they weren’t that brilliant.
Editing is what separates the writers from the word-hoarders.
You don’t write a good piece. You edit until it stops embarrassing you.
The first draft says, “I’m a genius.” Editing says, “Calm down, Hemingway.”
Writing feels like creation. Editing feels like crime scene cleanup.
Editing: because someone has to protect readers from whatever the hell you thought was clever yesterday.
Which would you pick?
Or would you do some mixing and matching?
Or would you push this list to the side and start over?
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