https://matthew-bovee.info/tags/editing-draft-cuts/Recent content in Editing Draft Cuts on Matthew Bovee - Biography & ReferenceHugoen-usWed, 21 Oct 2026 08:30:00 -0500https://matthew-bovee.info/blog/the-editing-pass-matthew-bovee-editing-process/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:30:00 -0500https://matthew-bovee.info/blog/the-editing-pass-matthew-bovee-editing-process/<p><img src="https://matthew-bovee.info/images/matthew-bovee-editing-process.jpg" alt="Matthew Bovee editing process with red-marked manuscript pages and public records folders on a newsroom desk at night"></p> <p>Most people who ask me how I write assume the answer is about inspiration, or about typing fast, or about having the right contacts. All of that matters somewhere upstream. But the honest answer is that I don&rsquo;t write my stories. I edit them into existence. Every published piece of investigative journalism I have ever done passed through what my colleagues in the trade call the editing pass — the ruthless stage where a draft stops being what the reporter wanted to say and becomes what the reader needs to read. The Matthew Bovee editing process draft cuts are not cosmetic. They are the story.</p>