Aggressive Self Editing: How To Become Happy with Every Word You Write with Jerry Jenkins

Aggressive self-editing is framed as the fastest route to writing that agents and acquisitions editors can trust—because it tightens style and clarity without waiting for someone else to fix avoidable problems. Jerry Jenkins draws a sharp line between “substantive” revision (structure, flow, pacing, character) and the more mechanical but high-impact work of line-level copy editing: word choice and sentence construction. The goal is simple but demanding—be “happy with every word” before submission—since poorly edited manuscripts can get judged quickly and moved on from, often within a couple of pages.

Jenkins argues that editing isn’t just publishers’ territory; it’s writers’ responsibility to polish “publishable stuff.” He also pushes a style-first mindset: his self-editing checklist targets clarity and voice rather than treating grammar as the whole game. That emphasis shows up repeatedly in the workshop’s examples—passive voice that weakens sentences, redundancies that add bulk without meaning, clichés that signal low originality, and dialogue tags or adverbs that can intrude on the reader’s experience. Francine Prose’s idea is used as a north star: the satisfaction of cutting and reshaping sentences until they snap into a clearer, more economical form.

Chris Banks, creator of ProWritingAid, demonstrates how the software supports this “ferocious self editing” workflow. The editor can run a summary report that scores grammar, spelling, and style, then breaks results down by paragraph and surfaces actionable issues. Beyond quick checks, the tool provides targeted reports—like passive voice detection, readability measures, redundancy and cliché highlighting, dialogue tag and attribution checks, and “telling vs. showing” flags. Banks stresses that the software doesn’t replace human editors, but it delivers “quick wins” so later editorial time can focus on higher-level craft.

A major segment focuses on passive voice. The workshop teaches a practical detection method: look for “state of being” verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had, do, does, etc.) and especially constructions that include “by” (e.g., “was planned by Jill”). A memory trick—if “by zombies” can be inserted after the verb, the sentence is passive—helps writers revise into more direct active forms.

Readability is treated as another lever for keeping readers immersed. ProWritingAid uses Flesch Reading Ease to estimate comprehension effort, with guidance that fiction often lands around a 60–70 target (roughly seventh-grade comprehension). The software also highlights “readability enhancements” such as nominalizations (e.g., “make a decision” → “decide”) and suggests removing overly complex words.

The workshop then stacks additional style fixes: subtle redundancies (“nodded her head in agreement”), overused adverbs and hedging (“smiled slightly,” “almost”), needless words (“located in the back part of the book”), and “glue words” that make sentences harder to follow. For fiction, extra reports flag repeats (words/phrases used too often), sentence-length variety problems, and provide exploratory tools like Word Explorer to spark fresh wording.

In Q&A, Jenkins and Banks reinforce practical boundaries: editing should not become endless—at some point, further changes only make sentences “different,” not better. They also address workflow and access questions: ProWritingAid works with Microsoft Word via plugins (Windows) and via a desktop app for Mac; it can open Scrivener projects without manual exporting; it’s currently English-focused (Spanish in development); and it’s positioned as secure, with encrypted transmission and storage only when users choose to save to the service.