Editing your writing

Is editing your own work all that difficult? I think it is. Once I’ve finished writing a piece and gone over it four or five times, my eye starts to skip even obvious errors. I’ve been working on an MS where an auto correct function took most contractions and spelled them with a quotation mark instead of an apostrophe – i.e. don”t instead of don’t.

For some reason, once that occurred the spell check wouldn’t pick them up. So I went through the piece manually changing them. Then I sent the pages to my pad to read it again and discovered I’d missed a bunch. See? It’s not that easy to do your own editing.

I’ve tried to work out a system once a piece is finished –

  • Run spell check
  • Run list of overused words
  • Read through on computer and edit
  • Send to pad to read and make notes of obvious errors
  • Final read through
  • I consider reading it out loud, printing it and reading it on paper
  • Then I start looking for other eyes on the MS because I’m bound to have missed something.

Joan DeMartin wrote a good piece on Lipsticking website about self editing. You can read it here –

http://www.lipsticking.com/2014/07/channeling-your-inner-editor.html

How do you edit? All suggestions welcome!

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10 Responses to Editing your writing

  1. That sounds extensive, Sylvie. And impressive. Also a good article from Joan DeMartin.

    I used to hate editing but now I love it. Don’t know what changed. Perhaps I just overcame my fear of editing. The hard part is finding that fine balance between writing new stuff and editing, since both have lots of appeal. The two processes involve entirely different ways of thinking.

    So my suggestion would be to use a timer. I do that to ensure I dedicate time for each. I’m also a great believer in printing out, to read – I often do that type of hand editing on the bus ride to work. Makes my 30-40 minute rush hour ride to and from work seem as if it’s passing by in seconds. I occasionally miss my stop and have to walk back. 🙂

    • Great idea, Shereen – A timer would keep me from letting the editing take over the entire day, which often happens, and allow me to get some writing done as well. Thanks for stopping by, Sylvie

  2. Mimi Barbour says:

    I find the best way to do the best edit is to send it to my editor and let her find the multitudes of mistakes my glazed eyes pass over or my bored brain doesn’t even recognize. LOL

  3. Jodie Esch says:

    I’m a big fan of printing out my work. Then I utilize the services of my beta readers. These folks tend not to be writers but love to read. Last year I had a librarian and a school counselor read my work. It’s amazing the glitches that they found.
    After they’ve finished, I make my changes and then have another look. Finally, I have my editor work on it. It’s quite the process. And even after all that, a reader who purchased the book, notified me of a few minor items that needed to be changed.
    No book is perfect is now my motto. All the best with your editing process.

  4. Anna Markland says:

    Some say when you sit down to write you should just write, but I prefer to reread the passage I finished off with the day before. (not necessarily everything I wrote.) It sets me up for what might come next. I invariably make improvements right there and then to what I wrote off the top of my head the day before. It isn’t a major edit, but it’s become an easy routine.

  5. Mimi, You made me laugh. Where is my editor, I ask?
    Anna and Jodi, thanks for the comments. Those are good words of advice. I’m adding them to my repertoire of editing tasks.

    Sylvie

  6. Editing is a LOT harder than I expected it to be. That said, I’m finding my critique partners to be an invaluable help to me. They’ve taught me so much about this new career I’ve decided to conquer. I give full credit to their insightful comments in bringing me along this path we call writing, 🙂

  7. Hi Jacquie, Good of you to visit. Yes, it’s hard, next to the actual writing it’s the most time consuming and gut wrenching part. A critique group is a great idea and has helped me too, thanks Sylvie

  8. Pat Amsden says:

    Editing! Sometimes it’s the difference between writing that lies there like a lumpy glob of clay and a work of art that draws readers in and leaves them wanting more. I notice you seem to concentrate mainly on the copy editing , which is certainly a downfall of mine, but equally, if not more important, is developmental editing.

    Beta readers and critique partners can be invaluable for this, but it would be interesting to see more on this process.

  9. Good observation, Pat. That is a whole other process that has to take place before the copy editing even starts. Maybe I’ll get to that another time, to comment. Thanks for stopping by, Sylvie

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