Secret of good writing -- hire an unfriendly sub-editor

I stumbled upon this blog posting by someone called "Offbeat Girl" while checking out the Pick the Brain site. She was talking about writing and voiced the same old myths that you can improve and eventually be a great writer if you wish hard enough, write nonstop, copy certain bloggers, and pick up some sure-win techniques of successful writing.

Here's an excerpt from Offbeat Girl (note the not-so-subtle way she blew her own trumpet):

Does my writing suck? It’s all a matter of perception, isn’t it? Some might respond, “Are you kidding? You are a guhhh-rrreaat writer!” and it might be very true, because not everyone can write well. But there will also be others who have read a great deal of books, and studied various forms of writing, who might peer at my work and go, “Meh. Could do a lot better.”

Here’s my personal answer to my own question: I think I make a decent writer, but if I don’t add value and improve this skill, then yes, I will eventually suck.

I’m still a big piece of work-in-progress, really. There are various types of writing technicalities and methods that I still do not understand. And as far as blogging goes, I wish I could be a great content marketer, a la Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

I couldn't resist posting a comment. Here's what I wrote:

Your writing doesn't "suck" (whatever that means) but, in your own words, you're adding nothing of value to the string of words. But why am I on your site? I stumbled on it simply because I read and value Pick the Brain thoughtful articles and saw a side link to your site with an intriguing headline about learning.

Since I'm here, I might as well add some unsolicited comments about your naive assumption on writing.

You don't just write and write or adopt a certain writing "method" or follow certain "techniques" to be a better writer. What you need is to have something worthwhile to reveal -- a secret way to make a million dollars, the discovery that the Earth is an egg not a globe, that Colonel Gaddafi is Tony Blair's long-lost twin bro, that when you send your dress for dry cleaning, they merely vacuum it, iron it and charge you a fortune.

Then you hire a mean newspaper-type sub-editor to plough through your text, and to cut, cut, cut all the lor-sor parts (i.e. 90 percent of it) and ask you insulting questions on every single meaningless phrase that you wrote. "What do you mean by saying, I eventually suck? Eventually means when? When you are 90 years old? Suck what? Are you implying somewhat downright filthy?"

The only person I am aware who wrote seemingly endless, meandering streams of text BUT where every phrase is a gem of humour and insight is Mark Twain. But you and I are not Mark, so we need unfriendly sub-editors to re-sculpt our words and reduce a chunk of stone into a compact, crafted, meaningful narrative.

If you can't afford a sub (they're paid $6,000-$9,000 p.m.), be one yourself. Take your own text and regard it as a piece of shit from someone you dislike. Then slash through it and see if there's anything left that is worth publishing.