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Editing down the Catwalk and Other Designing Disciplines


I used to enjoy watching a television show called, Project Runway. What drew me wasn’t that it was a “reality show,” or even that it involved competition. What excited me about it was watching the fashion-design processes unfold. Contestants made concept sketches, designed patterns or draped fabrics, and constructed glamorous or casual garments. While the weekly goal was almost always to outdo the other participating contestants, many of the clothes designers conceived purely with the aim of creating what they personally loved in fashion.

When it came time to judge the garments for style, quality construction, and originality — and for how well they met the specific criteria of whatever challenge parameters were issued for that week’s episode — one of the types of critical comments that would frequently come up in the judges’ discussion was that about “editing.” A judge might say to or about a contestant, “You need to learn to edit,” or “That outfit could definitely use some editing.”


5 Men in Suits Wearing Striped Socks

Hearing those statements might cause listeners some confusion. Doesn’t editing have to do with writing? We writers (and editors) are quite familiar with the term “editing,” but perhaps we haven’t considered what it means in relation to other creative fields. To make sense of this, let’s define “to edit” this way:

To review a creative process or product with the aim to cut away what may be

superfluous or hindering; to enhance or elevate any concept or entity by means of

isolation through reduction.

The Project Runway judges wanted their design contestants to revise their perspectives, and to keep an eye on the quality of their fashions by remembering to edit at every stage of the design and production processes. Knowing when and how “to edit” is essential to every creative designer.

For example, interior designers also make great use of editing. Without applied discernment, home design can become cluttered, even jarring. Knowing when, where, and how to curb spending on materials, furniture, and accessories is also part of an interior designer’s editing process.

Chefs need to edit, too — they need to know when to stop adding ingredients to the pot, and which. Recipe-craft is the written and practiced art of combining foods that harmonize in the tastiest of ways. Recipes are also often edited to suit varying groups of eaters, such as those who may have allergies, strong dislikes, and other health issues, or due to seasonal availability of ingredients.

When you begin to think of editing as a creative application used in many practices and arts, the concept becomes more appealing — rather than being viewed as just a technical necessity to providing a clean manuscript, editing in writing should be seen as the visionary process used to advance, and then polish, words to their finest.

I’m afraid I don’t have any kind of Project-Runway-type show set up for writers to spring on you, but I do have a delicious, new, “favorite” cookie that I revised and edited (to suit my pantry and tastebuds) from an old, 1950s recipe (the classic Canadian Honey Drops) that I can share with you.

Maple Yo-Yos

From the Kitchen of Eve Hanninen

Makes about 3 doz. sandwich cookies

½ cup margarine, softened

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

3½ cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

Raspberry, apricot, plum, or other favorite jam

Cream together the margarine, butter, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in syrup and vanilla. Add flour, soda, and salt to bowl with creamed mixture; stir in until all flour is incorporated. Chill dough at least 2 hours (or overnight). Heat oven to 350°F. Roll dough into 1¼” balls; place 12 balls each per ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-11 minutes (in batches, if necessary). Remove from sheets to kraft or butcher paper to cool slightly; put cookies together by spreading jam on the bottom of one cookie and sandwiching with another. Delicious with tea, or milk.

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