Why You Need Friction in Your Editing Business

Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s episode. So today’s topic has been marinating in my brain for a little while now, and I just have to get it out. I have to get it outta my brain and out into the world. And it’s short. This episode will be short, but I think it just, it needs to be said and it needs to be something that we all think about in our editing businesses and quite frankly, our lives.

And that’s this idea of friction. And for this episode, I’m gonna be talking about some things with friction, mostly because this world we live in today is just racing toward AI and capitalism and productivity and do more and more and more and do it faster and do it quicker. And my personality is, it makes me wanna do the exact opposite and slow down and do the other things.

And when I think about that, though, I start thinking, oh, am I, you know, I feel guilty for not maximizing every second of my day. Or, you know, am I doing something the hard way when it could be done, you know, faster, better, da da, da, da. And I was curious if you felt the same way, and that’s why I wanted to open up this discussion.

So I wanna talk today about when friction can be good, when it can be not so helpful, and then most importantly, how we can embrace friction in our editing businesses. So we’re just gonna get right into it.

Welcome to The Modern Editor Podcast, where we talk about all things editing and what it’s like to run an editorial business in today’s world. I’m your host, Tara Whitaker. Let’s get to it.

Like I said, this has been marinating for a few months now. It came about because we read the book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman in our book club for the Freelance Editors Club a few months ago. And this quote that I read hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it.

And it’s what has prompted me to think about a lot of things in my business and in my life the past few months. And that quote is: “When you render the process more convenient, you drain it of its meaning.” All right, one more time: “When you render the process more convenient, you drain it of its meaning.”

Phew. And I think it was even more impactful for me when I read it because I was going through my, we will say issues with social media at the time, and I was really grappling with how communication and connection works on social media. And this comes back to friction, right? 

Think of social media. Think of how easy it is to like something, share something, repost it, you know, share someone else’s post or Story to your Stories. On Instagram, there’s zero friction there. It is so unbelievably easy, it’s kind of laughable. And when I say friction here, I mean putting in extra effort into something and this is, you know, a quick and easy way of connecting can lead to lots of things.

That’s why we have so many parasocial relationships. That’s why we think we might be connecting with people when really we’re just broadcasting and et cetera. I promise this isn’t an episode about social media, but this is what I was thinking about when I came across this quote and related to that. It came across when my community, my local community was very much impacted with some social justice and activism, uh, things happening. And sure, there are some ways that social media can be helpful with that, but when we look at moving the needle in a significant way, it’s not moving it that much.

And just to be clear right now too, I wanna make sure this is very clear. I am not talking about systemic issues. You know, none of this pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or working harder and good things will come. Uh-huh. We’re not doing that. I don’t mean that kind of friction. That’s not friction. That’s crappy things. So that’s not what I mean by friction.

I’m talking about taking a little extra effort to do something that is currently really just something you can quote easily do. This all related back to our businesses, particularly editors and authors and a little bit with AI, right? AI is making things, you know, we can just crank things out better. We don’t have to use our brains. All you gotta do is learn how to prompt it. You don’t have to work through it and have any critical thinking. You just have to learn how to prompt it. And we see it day in and day out.

Like I’ve said before, we absolutely need to be aware of it and knowledgeable of it and what it can and cannot do. But maybe this is just my stubborn streak, but I am going to just keep using my brain, even if it’s not the coolest thing or the fastest or the most productive and allows me to edit 28 books a day. I’m just, I’m just not subscribing to that.

And think about it with authors. Think about how much it takes to write a book or write anything, really. Now it’s, we’ll just plug a prompt into ChatGPT and voila, you have a book. Where is the friction there? Where was the brainpower? Where was the extra effort? You’ve drained the meaning from the book because there’s no humanity element to it at all.

There’s no friction, there’s nothing, nothing between you and that book. And let’s be honest, there should be, right? Knowledge is so quickly and easily obtained. I mean, when I was in school, haha, I sound like I’m ninety, but you know, if I wanted to write a report or a paper, I had to go to a physical library. I had to find the book. I had to find the article or the section of the encyclopedia, and I had to write the report with my hand and pen and paper.

Now think about it. All we gotta do is whip out a search engine, type it up. We can type it even, or hey, we can just put a prompt into ChatGPT. There is no friction to this whatsoever, and quite frankly, it’s a little terrifying. And with our businesses, all businesses, but I’m gonna speak of course directly to you all as editors, experience can’t be rushed. It just takes time to gain experience. We have to spend time doing the thing to get better at it, and that’s the friction of time, and that’s okay.

I am the most impatient person on the planet. I struggle with this all the time, but I also have to remind myself that there is no way to get better at what I do than just doing it and spending the time and energy learning and doing it, not giving it off to a computer or a robot. I have to do it. And it might not be the most popular way right now, but I prefer to build my business and use my brain in a solid, substantiated, ethical way. And that, I feel like that way is getting more and more unpopular ’cause it’s just, the world is moving fast, right? We gotta keep up with it. We gotta, we gotta keep going. We gotta try the new thing. We gotta do the new thing. And I just can’t.

And friction is not the enemy. It’s not the enemy. It’s the core of creativity and sustainability, and being that us editors and authors are in the business of creativity, that’s something I think we really need to keep in mind.

Friction is okay in the ways that I just mentioned, but on the flip side, friction can be super unhelpful. Okay, so on the flip side, friction can be unhelpful for a few things. I’m sure there’s more, but we’re just gonna go over a few. Number one, when you’re trying to build new habits. Some of you might already know this, but for those of you who don’t, I’m a Tiny Habits Certified Coach.

I help editors create sustainable habits for their businesses and lives. And the less friction you have when building a habit, the better. So in that regard, friction can get in the way of success. 

Friction can also be yucky when it comes to doing things that are outside of our normal convenience. I’ll use an example from Four Thousand Weeks when we can do everything online from the comfort of our own homes or the library or wherever you can find a computer. You know, you can buy concert tickets, you can have some shoes sent to you immediately, like, you can do anything super quick. So then when it comes to, in the US, waiting in line to vote, that is super super friction, right? That’s annoying.

That takes time out of our busy schedules. Even if it doesn’t take that long, we perceive it as taking forever because it is so outside of our normal conveniences. Waiting in line at the checkout counter at the grocery store feels like it takes eternity because we can have our groceries delivered and we don’t even have to deal with the line. Or we can just drive up and pick it up. Someone can bring it out to us. You get the picture.

So sometimes when it comes to things that we need and should be doing, they can have more friction and we have to fight against that and do it anyway, because things like voting are super important and we can’t do those on a computer at the moment.

So all this to say, if you’re building an editing business, or if you’ve been, you know, if you’re well into your business journey, it’s just a good reminder to remember that there are no shortcuts to experience. There’s no hack or tool or platform or strategy that is going to get you there. Faster friction in our businesses can be a good thing. Putting in extra effort into something is a good thing no matter what the world likes to tell us.

We all love things better, faster, quicker, easier. And also we can have extra effort, extra time. We can put forth effort into doing something that matters to us and that matters to the world in general. It can keep our creativity sustained. It can be very beneficial, even if it is not the most productive or the latest hack.

I promise that doing hard things pays off. Going against the grain can be scary for sure, but in my opinion, I think it’s worth it, especially when we’re talking about the future of editing and writing. I think friction is good, friction is necessary. It should be uncomfortable.

It should make us explore parts of ourselves that we’re maybe not super into exploring, and I think that is what is going to sustain us in the long run as opposed to latching on to the hottest next thing.

So there’s my little soapbox speech on friction and why it can be totally okay to experience it in your editing business. Yes, there are some times that it’s not great. I’m sure there are more out there, but overall, it’s okay. It is okay.

And if you are looking for a community of editors to help you navigate that friction and remind you that it is okay and it is worth it, we’d love to have you inside the Freelance Editors Club.

There’s gonna be some really cool, exciting changes coming in the new year in 2026. I am super excited to share with you all soon, but for now, you can jump in with a 14-day free trial. You can go to TaraWhitaker.com/Club, and we would love to see you in there.

So until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember, you are not alone in this editing journey.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor Podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review over on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume podcasts. And don’t forget, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We’ll chat again soon.