One of the biggest struggles I have seen from new and experienced video editors alike, is the struggle of editing videos quickly.

You can have recorded the best video ever, but when it comes time to edit that video, you’ll find yourself bogged down in one of two ways:

You’ll either be stuck with a creative block, unable to decide what to edit next.

Or, you’ll be fighting against your video editing software, trying to make it do what you want it to do.

If you haven’t heard it before, let me be the first to tell you:

You can edit faster!

For the next few days, I want to prove this to you.

And I want to show you 3 practical ways that you can edit faster, smash through your creative blocks, and make your video editing software do what you want it to do.

Let’s get started.

Today I want to talk about your mindset when it comes to video editing, and how you can approach editing differently to avoid getting stuck.

See, most video editors approach editing in a linear fashion. They edit a video straight through from beginning to end, starting with an intro, telling a story, then ending with a conclusion.

The problem is that this method of editing from beginning to end can often result in a creative block, where you as the editor will find yourself asking, “What comes next?” And if you don’t have the answer to that question, you can get stuck for minutes, hours, or days before you figure it out.

But you don’t have to do things this way! Instead of editing in a linear way, try editing non-linearly.

Here are some easy ways to do that:

• Start editing the part of your video that you are most excited about. If you’re editing a YouTube video and you are most excited about showing off something cool, edit that part of the video first. Or if you are editing a wedding film and you are most excited about the ceremony, show that. Or if it’s a corporate video and you have killer B-Roll of a technology used by the business, start editing that.
• Edit the bookends. Every video needs a start and an ending, so focus on editing those two parts first. The rest of your video will easily come together in the middle.
• Literally edit backwards! When I have a scene that I know needs to happen at a certain part of my video, I will edit that first then work backwards, clip by clip to fill in the rest. Just remember to hit play every once in a while to make sure things look good going forward.

Now you may be already doing some of this, but if you aren’t, don’t be afraid to start.

Once you start combining all of these editing methods together, if you ever find yourself getting stuck, you can just change the method and overcome your creative block.

Action Step: Next time you are editing a video I want you to start editing the most exciting part of the video first. Then build the rest of your video out around it.

You’ll be amazed at how much faster your edit comes together!

That’s all for now!

Warmly,

Matt

P.S. I've got another editing tip hitting your inbox tomorrow! Keep an eye out for it.