How to Edit Your Writing

Also: More Substack news, and field notes from CES this week

Illustration by Kevin Sterjo

Welcome back to The Morning Walk, a free newsletter about marketing, digital publishing, and personal entrepreneurship.

If you were forwarded this message, you can sign up for these emails by clicking here.

[VIDEO] How to Edit Your Writing

The next video in our January video series, “How to Edit Your Writing”, is now ready. Register below to get signed up.

🔗 REGISTER FOR THE VIDEO

In the age of AI and large language models, it's easier than ever to write a shitty first draft. Just type a little blurb into a chatbot and you're done.

This means that, to stand out, your writing needs to be better and more personal. The way to do this is with editing. When you know how to self-edit, it's easier to get to the point and press publish more often.

Click the button above to watch this video. You'll also be registered into the rest of the video series with just one click.

🎥 How to Reach Your Goals with Writing (live now)

🎥 How to Edit Your Writing (live now)

🎥 How to Organize Your Writing (Friday, January 19)

🙋🏻‍♂️ LIVE Workshop: “How to Work Less and Publish More in 2024” (Wednesday, January 24)

You can RSVP for this video series below if you haven't already done so.

🔗 REGISTER FOR THE VIDEO

News: Platformer Leaves Substack

Tech journalist Casey Newton's Platformer, a Substack darling, will migrate off the platform this weekend, joining dozens of other publications abandoning the company in the wake of its decision to allow and enable monetization of pro-Nazi discourse.

There's a fresh round of commentary on Platformer's decision from around the web, including write-ups from Rolling Stone, Quartz and The Washington Post (friend link).

I'm commenting on Substack more because my overview blog of the platform brings in a lot of readers and new subscribers (hello!). To be clear, I applaud Platformer's decision. And political discourse aside, my stance on Substack has remained the same since 2019: As an email newsletter provider, it sucks.

The ability to tag and segment subscribers is nonexistent. The built-in discoverability tools can become a crutch for marketing. Also, doing a paid newsletter is a huge content output, with much of that content having a short shelf life.

Platformer, which has 170,000 email subscribers -- thousands of whom are on the $10/month paid tier -- announced their decision on Thursday. That post was not paywalled, so you should check it out. You can read it here or by clicking the button below.

🔗 Read on Platformer

Field Notes: CES

I covered the world's biggest tech trade show as a professional journalist for the first time this year.

More than 1,400 technology startups descended onto Las Vegas last week for CES, the Consumer Technology Association's annual trade show. I was on the ground this year, covering a variety of topics for CNET, where I have my day job as an editor.

In Vegas, I gained a deeper appreciation for how creating content quickly gives you an edge. I had to write and edit on deadline frequently, and needed to rely on my fundamentals more than ever before. I published nearly a dozen bylines across articles and video, which was on the low end for our team of journalists on the ground.

(My colleague David Watsky, who covers kitchen tech, ripped out 15 article bylines alone -- and he also had to taste everything! 🍕)

More importantly, I was reminded of the power of workflows. Last week I worked closely with CNET's social team, which has their video cutting workflow down to a science. As field team, we'd go out into the exhibitor halls, sniff out the dupes, find notable products, record on the fly and send the footage to editors remotely.

These workflows paid off: On TikTok alone, CNET gained 40,000 followers in five days by capitalizing on trends with fast, quality coverage. One forthcoming post is a video I sourced, shot and edited myself. By setting us up to know and own our workflows from front to back, we were all able to produce a lot faster. I'm excited to do more video this year. And I warmed up to TikTok a bit more as a place to goof of and try new things.

Maybe you don't need more time to unlock your writing rhythm this year. Maybe you just need to sharpen your skills or introduce a new workflow to better decompress yourself.

Here were some of my bylines and press interviews from the week.

🔗 Control Netflix and Lamps With a Twist of Your Hand? With This Smartwatch Tech, You Can

🔗 Have Blizzard Blues? This Robot Plows Your Driveway While You Relax

🔗 For John Deere, a 50,000-Pound Tractor Controlled By a Phone Is Just the Beginning

🔗 What's It Like to Use an iPhone With a Physical Keyboard? I Got a Chance to Find Out

🎥 Watch This Magic Mirror Analyze Your Health (Video)

🎥 This iPhone Case Gives You a Physical Keyboard (Video)

📱 This Mirror Analyzes Blood Flow Patterns In Your Face (CNET TikTok)

📱 Partying Like It's 1999 with the New Clicks iPhone Case (CNET TikTok)

📱 This Silent Mask Lets You Make Secret Phone Calls (CNET TikTok)

📱 Govee's Smart Rope Light Is More Flexible Than Ever (CNET TikTok)

📺 AI takes center stage at CES 2024 (CBS News)