While reading someone else’s writing do you stop at a sentence to edit it in your head so it reads better? Does it ever rankle you when two sentences in a row use passive voice? Do you chop out unnecessary wordiness? Do you reword tired cliches into more clever, snappy phrases? If so, you might suffer from constant editor’s syndrome.

A decade ago, when I first gave this writing thing a try, I succumbed to a rather severe case of this syndrome. It actually made me stop reading fiction. That passive voice detector I mentioned above… man, could I not get past how successful, published authors wrote paragraph after paragraph riddled with it. Here I was, desperately seeking to get published while following all the rules, and these dudes with multiple volumes in best-seller racks thumbed their noses at every piece of must-do advice I found in all the improve-your-writing articles and books I read.

Now, I’ve relaxed a bit. It still bothers me, but I can relax and enjoy my reading more. Those rule-busters reflect how people talk in real life. In a way, you can’t portray a real-sounding voice (especially in first person) unless you fall into some of those patterns the experts tell us to avoid in our writing. Still, that constant editor comes in handy when, after setting aside a first draft for a while to let my excitement cool and allow me to take another more objective look at it, I can go back and clean up some of the chaff. Then, I turn on that constant editor up, to full blast, and take all the planks out of my own eye instead of bothering to point out specks in that other writer’s writing.

I’m giving my constant editor full reign as I re-read Second Wind, a decade old draft for a completed novel for which I’ve forgotten everything except the short synopsis I drafted for my query letter. It’s a fun process so far, reading the story as if for the first time, while having full license to edit, chop or add any sentence I want. Oh, and yes, I know I need to edit that title. Will get to that as soon as I finish the story and decide on a new title that suits it better.

For samples of my work, visit my Amazon author page.