Reading (and watching) other people’s stories simply for pleasure without also engaging in deliberate, meticulous analysis of them may inspire ideas and motivation, but it’s not going to do a lot to hone your skills as a writer. That’s like reading a math textbook and believing we understand calculus without ever working through the equations.

You have learn how to assess and diagnose what makes those works successful (or not) with an objective analytical eye. That’s not just a core skill for editors to learn—it’s the bedrock of every skill a writer must master.

That’s not to say you have to completely master the skills of a professional editor—but you can and should learn how an editor approaches story with that objective, analytical eye as one of the foundational skills of being a writer. I would venture that it’s the most important skill a writer can develop.

This interactive online workshop offers a version of the techniques I use as an editor with every single manuscript I work on as an editor—and it’s readily adaptable for writers even if you don’t have years of editorial education and apprenticeship behind you. You use yourself, as a reader, as the best barometer for the story’s effectiveness, and follow your own reactions back to the writer’s technique that engendered them.

That means you can let go of any writing “rules” or dogma or prescribed writing systems and just write when you’re writing, knowing that you’ve been honing your skills and instincts with all that training. And when the time comes to edit and revise your work, you’ll also have the skill and experience of slipping into those objective perspectives to make your self-editing most effective.

What we’re analyzing: “Switched at Birth” episode of This American Life podcast, episode 360

Podcast (recommended): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/360/switched-at-birth
Transcript: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/360/transcript

Editing guidelines here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Alxi7PaqmV2iiNINJQWx20kroTSPHg?e=lrfc3j

To join future sessions of the "How to Analyze Like an Editor" workshops, subscribe here: https://foxprinteditorial.com/alae-subscribe/

To learn concrete techniques to analyze story like an editor, check out my online course "How to Train Your Editor Brain": https://foxprinteditorial.teachable.com/p/how-to-read-and-watch-like-a-writer

For more writing craft, visit my website here: https://foxprinteditorial.com/