In the first few chapters of William Zinsser’s ‘On Writing Well,’ there’s a couple called ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Clutter.’
After reading them l opened two writings I’m working on and despite I’ve already edited them quite vigorously, l spotted some things that needed to be corrected such as ‘suddenly felt the urge to’ and a cluttered sentence.
Naturally, l replaced the former with ‘wanted’ and simplified the sentence. Zinsser said it’s amazing after substantial editing and revising what you can still see in your writing.
Previously, l replaced ‘stiff wind’ with cold wind and ‘smart’ with water - it’s better.
There’s no hard or fast rule about editing except no one’s going to hold your hand unless you spend vast amounts of money hiring someone to do it for you.
However, there’s no harm in reading something from a book like Zinsser’s and returning to your writing and editing what needs revising…
It works.