25 ways to tighten your writing

(Editor’s note: This was one of the top viewed stories of 2014. We’re rerunning it as part of a look back at the articles that captivated our readers the most.)

Writers rarely spit out their best copy on the first draft. (If you meet a writer who claims to have the secret for doing so, please let the rest of us know.)

First drafts—and second and sometimes third drafts—exist to hash out your ideas on paper. After you’ve revised your book, story, blog post, or article until you can revise no more, you just hand it off to your editor to clean up, right?

Well, that’d be ideal, but most of us don’t have the luxury of hiring an expensive editor to review our personal blog post. Because procrastination is the writer’s best friend, you probably don’t have time to even ask a fellow writer pal take a quick peek for errors.