Create a No-Wordsmithing Zone

I hate the term wordsmithing - I have since I first heard it as a professional writer. The word, and the attitude it represents, are dismissive, placing the process of writing on the level of clever assembly line operations. You take what the client gives you and "massage" it until it reads better. There is that unspoken assumption that the writer adds window dressing only.

Of course this is absurd. Writing is about analytic thinking, the absorption of information, the analysis of this mental material, and the design and construction of an intellectual road map that can get readers from point A to point Z while leaving them feeling more intelligent than when they started reading. Of course they feel smarter: suddenly they grasp something. however, it's the writer that does the heavy lifting and leaves a paved path where once there was bramble and brush.

There was a time that I didn't flinch when I heard wordsmithing. That is no longer the case. When a client uses that term or something similar ("The document only needs a little editing."), I disabuse them of the notion. When a corporate client plays the editing card, I say, "No, you're looking to condense material and to find the most important points. That's not editing; that's writing." When an editor sits on an article for weeks and then suddenly surfaces and says, "I need this changes," I say, "That's fine - I can get them to you in X number of days."

The more you remain quiet when a client effectively dismisses what you do, the more value you help drain from your services and the lower you set your price. The next time someone asks you to wordsmith, point out that you don't polish words like so many pieces of silver plate. You're a writer, and the work takes time, skill, and proper compensation.