A Great Quote About Editing

“In my years teaching writing, and as a writer, and as an editor, I feel safe in passing on something I’ve learned: that the solution to almost any ‘problem’ that a manuscript has is already contained in the work, that is, it is usually found in an unexplored sentence, some implication that has not been played out, a structure that is barely visible that must be solidified. Good writers often plant these solutions in the ‘unconscious’ of their work—it’s a matter of analysis and identifying the solutions in the unconscious of the manuscript.”

– James Reich

Michelangelo on Editing

The artist Michelangelo, when asked about how he created David (one of his masterpieces), supposedly said that he didn’t carve him out of stone, so much as remove everything that wasn’t David. I feel the same way about editing. I figure out the David in your book and remove everything that isn’t that.