Editor’s Picks— Top 10: Creative Editing Is a Powerful New Paradigm

Let’s skim and scan our top 10 stories today

The old wisdom said, ‘Cut all unnecessary words and sentences.’ But what makes this new paradigm exciting?

Think of the movies you watch.

Editing most of the movies in the last century involved removing clips and joining them more sensibly. Audio recording and editing worked similarly. Cut, cut, cut, and join.

But then things changed. First, the movies embraced this new paradigm, something called the ‘special effects.’ You could film a flying carpet with special effects. Movies like King Kong, Godzilla, Superman, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, are ideas based on special effects.

The audio recording industry also welcomed the trend. From recording a song with all the music in a single track, they started recording different tracks. These tracks were mixed during editing. Now you can record a song in Apple’s GarageBand and change anything you want. It’s free.

But somehow, writing has been stuck with the same advice — for ages. Cut everything you don’t need has been popular since the early 1900s, and there is nothing wrong with it. But you need to become more creative with your editing.

What about adding some special effects during your editing? The million-dollar question is: how can you add ‘writing special effects?’

Here are a few suggestions that may help:

• Google is a blessing for writers. Words bring it to life, and it breathes words. Hit a few keys, and it hounds after matches like a beast. Go ahead and look for better words — for your main idea — you don’t have to have Winston Churchill’s vocabulary anymore.
• Use Ludwig. Write your sentence in its search bar, and it will show you similar sentences from hundreds of books. Check if you can improve the structure of your sentence.
• If you are writing about love — and you want to use Einstein’s quotes about love — search for ‘love quotes by Einstein,’ and you’ll see how his granddaughter Evelyn published 54 letters in a book, ‘The Love Letters’ in 1992. Also, Einstein never said love was a universal force.
• Find the best books about your topic. Read about their authors and use their quotes to support your insights.
• Use visual words. Add words and sentences that involve touch, smell, feeling, and taste-words to ‘spice up’ your piece.
• Add anecdotes. It’s hard to find stories explaining what you are trying to address. But if you were willing to spend time, you’d probably find something to help explain your point.

You can add many interesting details and strengthen your arguments after you have cut the unnecessary words. Be creative about what you can add.

You can add practically anything — from real-life events to images stored on your phone, from tweets to movie clips, forms songs to TED talks, from links to similar blog posts to research articles.

In simple words, the new paradigm says, ‘Add new words creatively after you cut the unnecessary words.’

Here is a list of our top 10 stories — edited creatively enough to rank above others:

10. Top 5 Biggest Mistakes I Made in Business

Yana Hempler writes about health, wellness, & personal development. She is passionate about community connection. She covers topics related to fitness and business.

Although I started my personal training business after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, I still had to figure out how things work in “the real world”. Studying business is one thing but actually attempting to start a business and then successfully running it is a different ball game.

9. 8 Simple Ways to Control Your Emotions Professionally

Ibrahim K writes about Tech, Lifestyle Tips, Recipes & Culture.

Often, we later regret how our knee-jerk reaction escalates an incident and sparks a negative response from bosses, friends, or family. A single word could sadly result in a breakup or loss of a job.

Those who can control their emotions are usually successful and have attractive personalities. They can cope with hardships rationally. They’re diplomats. They’re leaders by nature.

8. How To Increase Your Sales Using These 5 Effective Strategies

Jazz Parks is a husband, father, Buddhist, entrepreneur. He is focused on self-improvement, economics, and religion.

He is a skilled writer. Her writing style is frank, direct, and informative. Do check his other work.

I’ve gained some valuable experience over the years, resulting in high payouts and consistent performance bonuses. The thing is, it doesn’t take much to excel in a sales-related position. By applying these strategies, even the most mediocre salesperson has a chance of genuine success.

Be Personable

People sell to people. When working in sales, you must focus on building a relationship with your customers. It’s your job to identify what the client needs before they know they need it. To identify the needs of your customer, get to know them better. As a rule of thumb, I always ask at least three questions during our transaction: these questions should somehow relate to the customer.

7. Dear 2021, Can I Go to the Bookstore?

Marne Platt writes about whatever comes to her mind. She edits whatever comes to your mind.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is charming, honest, and very engaging. Do check her other work.

I don’t want much from 2021. A couple of doses of vaccine for myself, my family and friends, according to the appropriate prioritization. To gather in a group and hug the people I love. And to go to a bookstore.

Dreaming of bricks and mortar

Sure, I can shop at Amazon, and the book depository, and many other online sites. And yes, I have used them extensively this year. I have even, when it was possible, visited a real bookstore for a few minutes, masked, sanitized and distanced, watching everyone around me to be sure that we didn’t get too close

6. I’m 6’4” and Black, so Why Do I Consciously Try To Make Myself Seem Smaller Around White People

G Correia is proud to be average and writes about life to make sense of it all. He loves to make pancakes.

He is an outstanding writer. His writing style is honest, humble, and pleasant. If you like this story, do check his other work.

For as long as my memory will allow, I have had an unhealthy obsession with survival, more pointedly… surviving; getting through the day, never being concerned with envisioning a bright future for myself.

Often, I wonder about all that I have missed in my life, and what I chose to not take advantage of because I was too focused on “just getting by” — placing my aspirations and ambitions aside. Worried if I let my guard down and think of what could be, I would open myself up and be vulnerable to the atrocities that come with Black life in America.

5. Steal My Plan for Cutting out These 5 Toxic Clients From Your Life

U-Ming Lee is a business and finance writer during the day. He is an excellent writer. His writing style is frank, informative, and thought-provoking. Do check his other work.

Freelancing and remote working were already becoming more on-trend without COVID-19 floating around. More and more people are coming on board, resulting in an influx of new freelancers into the workforce.

If you’re one of them, it’s OK to feel a little impostor syndrome. The feeling is even stronger if you’re a solo freelancer. All the clients you pitch your services to will be from larger organisations than yours. All of them will be richer than you are. Very often, they’ll be both.

4. Meditation is not for Everyone.

Hilda Carroll is a writer, meditation teacher, and an interior designer who helps people create sanctuary in their homes and lives.

She is a superb writer. Her writing style is simple, direct, and engaging. She is new to Medium and needs your love.

For most people, meditation is a safe practice that can bring many benefits to our wellbeing. And the internet is a plethora of resources to help people get started with the practice.

What we don’t see so often, though, are warnings that meditation is not for everyone. Or it might not be for some people at given periods of their lives.

3. What Makes A Book Priceless?

Celine Lai is trustworthy and practical. She writes articles that teach you to “Honour yourself through Self-care”. She is a peaceful Biologist.

She is an accomplished writer. Her writing style is frank, informative, and very engaging. She has more than a thousand followers. Do check her other work.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved words and reading. Like many, I became a prolific reader at an early age, and was deluged with books for Christmas and for my birthdays and everything in between.

At eleven years of age I was reading Shakespeare and at twelve I read some of James Mitchener’s novels and then Arthur Hailey’s “Roots”.

2. 7 Ways to Survive a Narcissist

Adekunle Jr is an excellent writer, fitness enthusiast, and avid reader. He is sharing his experiences, journey, and insights with all.

His writing style is honest, informative, and detailed. He is new to Medium and needs your love.

Anyone who has dealt with a Narcissist before knows that it is a full time emotionally draining and mentally taxing job. You can never be fully prepared for it, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) categorised as Cluster B Personality Disorders — according to the American Psychiatric Association, is a serious mental disorder where an individual has an inflated sense of self, a deep need for excessive attention, admiration and lacks empathy for others. They wear a mask of extreme confidence but underneath lies a fragile self-esteem that is vulnerable to even the slightest criticism.

1. TV Sex Confuses Me

At number one, it is Wendy Scott. She is a Brit living in Auckland. She is a learning and development professional who writes about leadership and personal development.

Her writing style is frank, honest, and highly engaging. She is in a writing mood these days. Don’t forget to check her other work.

Recently I’ve taken to analyzing any sex scenes on TV. I’m bewildered by what I see. The programs I watch aren’t porn or even very raunchy. My recent Netflix binges have been OZARK and The Alienist and a couple of films. My usual fare is sci-fi and fantasy — middle of the road viewing.

There is a lot of sex, though: It’s all very dull and incredibly quick. And none of it makes any sense to me. No matter whether it’s a film or a series, the sex follows the same formula.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series:

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–32–33–34–35–36–37–38–39–40–41–42–43–44–45–46–47–48–49–50–51–52 –53–54–55–56–57–58–59–60–61–62

Final Thoughts

If your story was selected in the Top 10, please share another one of your stories in the comments with a brief introduction and a short review that can convince a reader to read your piece. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. Dr Mehmet Yildiz, the Chief Editor and Founder of Illumination and Illumination-Curated, read, highlighted, and applauded every good story when he started his publications. He still reads almost all of the good ones. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz has kindly allotted the top 10 series a full shelf on the front page of Illumination-Curated and Illumination:

If you find any mistake, typo, or other error, please leave a private note for correction. Thanks.

Happy New Year!

To be included as a top 10 writer, read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.