If you are a writer who skips the self-editing process, you should know that editing is the key factor that separates good writers from mediocre ones. If you are writing for a publishing house or a magazine, you certainly have a professional editor to do this job for you, but if you are an aspiring writer and you’re working all by yourself, then you will need to do the editing on your own.
Editing
other people’s work is a challenge; editing your own writing goes beyond your
imagination of hard work. However, our simple tips will help you go through the
process more easily and successfully.
1. Just write first. Editing comes later.
The
most important thing to remember is to finish your writing before you start
editing it. If you stop to edit while you are writing, you will never finish
the piece. You can make a break and correct a typo you noticed in the previous
sentence, and it is fine to restart a sentence when you know it doesn’t sound
well. However, you mustn’t keep making one step forward and two steps back. If
writing without editing is a real struggle for you, you should try using Write
or Die by Dr Wicked – an application that will force you to continue writing by
punishing you every time you become distracted.
2. Step away from your work
It
is very important to let your work sit and step away from it before you start
with the self-editing process. If you are a blogger, you can give a few hours
or a day for the short piece to sit. However, if you have just finished writing
an entire novel, you need to put it aside for a week or two and, if possible,
stop thinking about it. This will allow you to have a fresh impression when you
come back to the writing. You will easily spot the parts that don’t fit, as
well as the inconsistent characterization and minor holes in the plot.
3. Change the format
If
you turn your words into another format, you will spot the mistakes or problems
more easily. Printing out a blog post or transferring your novel onto an e-reader
will let you see your work with a reader’s eyes. If you only take a look at
your writing in its published form, everything will become clearer and easier
to fix.
4. Start with the content and structure
One
of the worst self-editing mistakes you could make is starting by polishing up
each sentence, every phrase and word, and cut out the unnecessary parts of the
material later. Editing the big picture first is much more efficient. You
should start by cutting out unnecessary sections or chapters, adding the
missing information and revising the sections or scenes that require radical
improvements. You can start digging down into the individual words and
sentences after that.
5. Lower the word count by 10%
It’s
no secret that writers tend to over-write. This is why it’s important that you
cut out 10% of the word count once you are happy with the big picture.
Unnecessary words only weaken the story and your argument, which is why you
need to get rid of them. If you find that the same point has been repeated
several times throughout the piece – it’s probably unnecessary and your reader
would be annoyed by the repetitiveness. Cut out all unnecessary adjectives and
wishy-washy phrases and you’ll end up having a much cleaner piece that will be
easier to read.
6. The spell check is great, but it’s not
all-mighty
You
should never forget to run your work through a spelling and grammar checker.
However, you should not rely on this tool completely because it can’t catch
every mistake. For example, homophones often go through this process unnoticed,
but your readers will surely notice them. You need to use your eyes too.
7. Read the piece backwards
This
is a strange technique, but it makes the tough self-editing process easier. It
is a trick that will help you notice the small mistakes that were sliding past
you. If you’re not used to this way of proofreading, you can read the piece
really slowly. This can be done by increasing the font size, which will prevent
you from seeing too many words on your screen at a time.
8. Know when you are finished
When
you start editing and perfecting your own work, you could fall into a
never-ending cycle of rewriting some parts and then changing them back. You
should know when you are done and stop the process at some point. You cannot
achieve perfection, so remember that a published piece is always better than a
manuscript that sits on your computer forever.
Sandra
Miller is freelance short story author and graduate of Literature from
the NYU, where she wrote for the students journal and tutored students
in writing. She recommends authors use professional editing services Help.Plagtracker. Now she is writing her first YA novel.
