Eight Productive Self-Editing Tips
If
you are a writer and you want to separate yourself from the mediocre talents in
your industry, you have to work on your self-editing skills. All writers know
how to write, but only great ones know how to edit.
Editing
someone else’s work is difficult enough, but writers find it nearly impossible
to edit their own writing. The reason is simple – they are too personally
attached to it and don’t want to change it, so many of them decide to skip the
whole editing process altogether. However, getting your piece right and making
it better for your readers is your ultimate goal, so we recommend you to start
developing your editing skills through our eight simple tips.
Sandra Miller is a freelance writer at editing service Help. Plagtracker. She is extremely passionate about latest trends in education technology. Keeps developing her writing style and exploring the different types of fiction. Currently takes her first steps toward writing her first YA novel.
1. Finish writing, then start editing
You
have probably heard this advice many times by now, but it is very important: do
not stop to edit while you are still in the process of writing. Many writers
find it difficult to implement this advice into practice, so they go back to
delete entire paragraphs or sentences before they finish the chapter.
It
is completely okay to take a break from writing to correct some obvious error,
or restart a sentence that doesn’t sound right. This can be done while you are
working on your first draft, but you have to keep writing when your creative
inspiration is in its full potential.
2. Put the work aside before editing
Before
you start editing your work, it would be wise to let it sit for few days, or
even a few hours if it’s a short piece, such as a blog post. However, take more
time if you have just finished writing a novel. You need to stop obsessing over
it for at least one or two weeks before you come back to it and start editing
it.
This
will help you see your work with a fresh mind, and it will be easy for you to
spot the inconsistencies in the characters, the holes in the plot, and the
chapters that don’t fit well in the big picture.
3. Change the format
If
you physically turn the words into a different format, you will easily spot the
mistakes. This is a trick for your mind: you will change the things it is used
to seeing, and you’ll start noticing problems that didn’t stand out before.
4. Structure and content needs to be edited
first
The
greatest mistake most writers make is starting their editing on sentence level
– they polish up every single sentence, and then they start cutting out the
useless parts of the material. Your work will be much more efficient if you
focus on the big picture first. Start looking for useless sections and chapters
that should be left out for some reason. Maybe you will think of some missing
information that needs to be added, or some sections that require radical
revisions.
These
major adjustments should be done before you start working on the individual
words and sentences.
5. The ‘10% of the word count rule”
Your
editing work isn’t done when you’re broadly happy with the flow and shape of
your peace. Now is the time to cut on the word count. If you are like most
writers, you probably use more words than necessary. That weakens the argument,
so you need to cut 10% of the entire word count.
Get
rid of sentences and paragraphs that repeat a point that has already been
elaborated. Cut out the wishy-washy phrases and unnecessary adjectives, and you
will have a much cleaner piece that will leave stronger impressions.
6. Spell-Check is great, but don’t avoid reading
Your
work should be always checked with spell-check, but you should be aware of the
fact that some errors go by unnoticed by this tool. Only your careful editing
eye can catch homophones and missing words.
7. Read backwards
This
is a strange, but effective technique: read the piece starting from the end
towards the beginning. If that’s too unusual for you, then increase the font
size and read the piece very slowly. At the final stage of editing, everything
is so familiar to you that even the most obvious mistakes seem completely
natural. These two tricks will help you catch the errors that were sliding past
you.
8. Finally: Let it go!
Don’t
fall into the trap of endless editing. You need to eventually stop and put your
work out in the world. Even if you don’t feel entirely confident, you should
publish the work when you catch yourself rewriting a paragraph and then
changing it back, or putting commas in and then taking them out. Even if some
imperfections remain unedited, you will still have more use from a published
piece than from the one that sits on your computer for ages.
Title: Waiting for Romeo
