Poetry and Short Stories

Fad Editing

Fad Editing. Have you heard the term before? Probably not, since I believe I just coined it tonight.

What do I mean by Fad Editing? First, lets define what a Fad is.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary:
A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze.

According to dictionary.com:
a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., esp. one followed enthusiastically by a group.

So a fad isnt something that sticks around, stands the test of time or has much reason for being other than everybody and their dog is doing it right now.

Most people know what editing is, but for the few that dont, dictionary.com defines editing this way:


1. To prepare (written material) for publication or presentation, as by correcting, revising, or adapting.
2. To prepare an edition of for publication: edit a collection of short stories.
3. To modify or adapt so as to make suitable or acceptable: edited her remarks for presentation to a younger audience.
2. To supervise the publication of (a newspaper or magazine, for example).
3. To assemble the components of (a film or soundtrack, for example), as by cutting and splicing.
4. To eliminate; delete: edited the best scene out.


That should be enough for most people to understand what I mean by Fad Editing. Everyone who fancies themself an editor spouts off a rule. That rule is an absolute, must not be broken... for a few months, maybe a few years. Then suddenly its no longer considered valid and some other rule takes its place.

I suppose that isnt such a bad thing, language evolves and the rules concerning its usage do as well. However I am very tired of being the receipient of some of the current Fad Editing rules.

The first rule is do NOT use adverbs or if you must use adverbs, use very few.
The reason given is that adverbs weaken the writing.

Unfortunately for the Fad Editors, adverbs are specificaly designed to strengthen a piece of work. They provide color, texture and richness.

I recently had someone read this sentence:

Stumbling to the window of his tower, every fiber of his being aching from the battle, he stood gazing silently out at the smoke rising from what remained of his city.

After they read the sentence, they informed me that I needed to delete the word silently because it weakened the sentence. Instead I should use strong descriptions. They also informed me that by adding that word to the sentence I contributed to it being wordy.

Im at a loss for how it weakens the sentence and I cant imagine what I could say to get across the point that the person in question is standing at the window, staring out of it without making a sound without using the word silently. Thats what it means after all. Well no, I suppose I could have said standing at the window, gazing out of it without making a sound, but that adds a good deal more words than just using silently.

A search for the word Adverb on Google turns up a wealth of excellent sites, all explaining what adverbs are, how to use them in sentences, WHY they should be used in sentences and so on.

Hopefully this piece of Fad Editing will burn out and blow away before too much longer.

Another example of Fad Editing is the current mantra of Tighten up the piece!" Evidently theres a fee being charged for each word in a piece now. The earth will rock, the sky will fall and all babies will be born without their arms and legs if any piece of writing has the least bit of extra fluff to it.

Im seriously tired of that little rule as well. Granted, extremely long descriptions can put me to sleep. I refuse to read The Fall of the House of Usher because the author rambles for three solid pages just describing the scene. That was, however, the Fad Editing style of his day. It was consider cheap and unprofessional to write something that didnt ramble on. A good author was one that filled the pages with long descriptions about everything.

There are many other Fad Editing rules which are perpetrated by the unaware. Very few people that offer advice on how to write have done any real research. Most just pick up what someone else has told them and pass it along. My suggestion to anyone reading this piece is:

Regardless of who you are, what you know, whether you taught English or not or even whether you work as an editor for a living or not; before you start making editorial comments, make sure that you arent just passing along the latest Fad Editing rule.