How do I make my edits feel smoother?

The Diagnosis

Two habits make edits feel choppy, and neither is about cutting too much. First: cutting on stillness. The eye notices a cut when nothing carries across it — cut in the middle of a movement instead, and the motion masks the join completely. Second: cutting audio and video at the same instant, every time. When both reset together, the viewer's brain resets with them — that's the 'chop.' Split the edit points: let the outgoing audio trail over the incoming picture, or let the incoming audio arrive before its picture. The voice carries the story across the join while the visuals move freely underneath. Those two changes — cut on motion, split your audio edits — are most of the distance between 'edited at home' and 'edited by a pro,' and neither costs a single effect.