Editing

Seth Godin posted an intriguing stat today: "...for the last seventeen years, every single movie that managed to win the Oscar for best picture was also nominated for best editing." (Run the analysis if you're curious.)

I agree with the value of editing. In fact, one of my favorite quotes (not sure who coined it, Stephen King? David Mamet?) is "Half of writing is editing."

If you've read McKee's Story, or almost any book on writing, you quickly uncover how true this is. The business of putting words down in a specific order is not 100% about just putting those words down. It's also about picking some up later and throwing them out, revising them, rethinking and, well, editing.

In fact, deciding what not to write is often more valuable than simply writing.

Godin asks, "Who's your editor?"

Hopefully, it's you.