. . cut once.
So goes the canonical advice to the woodworker. Also the linoleum/carpet installer. And retailer of fabric. And so on. Be sure before you do something you can’t undo.
In Proposal Land we don’t do much cutting in the sense of irrevocable changes, but we do a whack of unnecessary cutting if you count editing. And I do.
Outline twice, edit once.
Every hour we spend in outlining, in validating/vetting outlines, and in consistifying outlines across sections is rewarded by two hours less in high-pressure editing of wildly inconsistent sections and crazed re-writing of same in a vain late-to-need under-the-gun attempt to standardize the presentation where it makes sense. To make this dagnabbed proposal look like it came from a cohesive team.
Do I have stats to back up that claim? Um, no. Good point: Maybe it’s three hours of editing and re-writing time saved.
The man who built our house had a saying: “I don’t understand this. I’ve cut this piece twice, and it’s still too short.”
In the editing world, that never happens!
Jim T
Jim T – LOL. No, indeed. Never short enough, in fact!