20 The Pursuit of Perfection: Editing Your Proposal

SO YOU WANT TO BE A GOOD WRITER? THEN force yourself to be a rewriter. That’s where good writing happens.

A lot of people apparently believe that good writers don’t need to revise, that excellent proposals simply pour out of them in their complete and final forms. Trust me—that’s a delusion. If you currently cling to it, you’ll have to give it up. Otherwise, you’ll have little chance of improving your work.

How Much Should You Edit?

How much editing should you do? As much as you can. I know that’s a bit vague, but I’m sorry to tell you that there’s no magic formula, such as “five minutes per page” or “15 percent of the total time allocated to document development.” If it’s of any interest to ...

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