Erica Scheider & Rob Lennon – Content Editing 101

Why editing is the key to good writing

Growing up, I loved writing but had no clue how to make money from it.I thought you needed an English degree or to become a journalist, neither of which I had or wanted to do.So, I zig-zagged my way from job to job, picking up valuable skills but feeling zero passion.

In 2016, I left my startup job in Boston and moved to Thailand to teach English. I was craving a change and playing with the idea of becoming a teacher like half my relatives were.I re-learned English grammar basics and taught it to 5-10-year-olds in a small Thai village.

It wasn’t like high school English class, which made most people (including me) sweat.It was fun. Checking my students’ work reignited my love for the English language, words, and wordplay.But the experience made me realize I didn’t want to teach forever—I wanted to play with words forever.

So, when I stopped teaching in 2017, I immediately started writing and editing. I applied to 50+ jobs daily on Upwork and accepted whatever I could get.But the second I started getting feedback, I realized I had a problem.For articles, social posts, you name it, I didn’t know how to write for people reading online.

My sentences averaged 25 words. My transitions were messy.I wrote in passive voice. I overused adverbs. I leaned into clichés.The way I’d learned to write in school, even the way I’d taught it to my Thai kids had been, well, pretty flawed.

Luckily, I had an Upwork client school me (kindly):

This was the first time I ever got editing feedback. It opened my eyes and immediately impacted my mindset and momentum.Over the next few months, I furiously paid attention to and applied every bit of feedback I got.I quickly improved, which helped me deliver better work and raise my prices.I also learned an important lesson…

Anyone can learn to edit

Editing is a skill anyone can learn, but only if they have a good teacher.Unfortunately, most people don’t have access to great editors.

Out of the 122 jobs I completed on Upwork, and dozens more referral gigs before I went in-house, I only ever had two good editors.And that’s more than most writers get. Typically, as a paid writer, you get no feedback or bad feedback.

The unhelpful kind of feedback says “Change this” rather than something helpful like, “Change this because X, Y, Z.”And if you’re a content creator or entrepreneur going it alone, you’ve got a .01% chance a professional editor will ever review your work.

So even though I got lucky with good feedback, I wanted to teach myself in tandem to speed up the learning process.But I quickly noticed finding decent editing resources online is nearly impossible.This is especially true for creating content and posting on social.

And if you do search for editing help, most advice on page 1 of Google tells you to “take a break” and “come back with fresh eyes” to edit later.True, sure. But so basic.There’s next to nothing here about how to approach editing, what to look for, and what to do when you find it.

And if you turn to social media, the writing influencers you meet are obsessed with preaching that editing is a cutting exercise. Again, true, but only half the story.

I don’t blame people for conflating editing with cutting. Editing involves cutting tons of fluff. I even named my newsletter after this metaphor.But at its core, editing is a value-adding exercise, not a cutting one. Because when you’re cutting fluff, redundancy, and wordiness, you’re increasing value, not decreasing it.

When you remove friction, you add clarity.

This is why I loathe most editing advice on social media and page 1 of Google.It’s overly simplistic.The reality is that free editing advice is terrible and good editors are super expensive if you’re lucky enough to find one.

Most people want to edit their content but don’t know what to do

Most people I talk to will spend hours on a first draft, check it for typos and obvious errors, and call it a day.That’s “editing” to them.But they know deep down that even a few minutes of more purposeful editing could make what they wrote twice as engaging or effective.

If you feel stuck wanting to learn how to edit but are lost on where to start, you’re not alone.What are you meant to do with zero resources or guidance?I hear this from writers and content creators all the time, especially when I ask, “What is your biggest struggle with self-editing?”

So a common experience plays out…

You sit down to edit, and one of two things happens:

Both situations absolutely suck.

Well, maybe the last one’s a bit dramatic. But I bet it’s not far off.It’s time to take back control of the editing process.

You deserve an editing roadmap.So you can stop feeling confused and start feeling confident about what changes to make and why they’ll improve your content.

When I built myself a step-by-step editing process, my content transformed.It took my writing from good to great and completely killed the endless cycle of second-guessing my decisions.And here’s something I didn’t expect.My writing started taking less time even though my content quality had gone up because of this “extra” step.

I quickly realized the impact this could have on other writers.So, I became obsessed with teaching writers, content creators, founders, or anyone writing online how to self-edit their content without feeling overwhelmed.

The result?Their writing improved.They enjoyed editing.Their engagement skyrocketed.And they grew their businesses.