Everyone knows what spring cleaning is, but guess what? March is the National Editing Month for Writers, so why not embrace the “spring cleaning� spirit and clean up one of your works? It can be a work in progress or something you finished long ago, either way, pull it out and invite your inner editor over for tea!
Since I could spend pages discussing editing and revising tips I will make this quick and short, focusing on a couple big tips that will help you edit your own pieces, because, after all, we aren’t all lucky enough to have someone who can look over our writings. If anyone has anything to contribute please speak up, we all are exposed to different things and have been taught different ways; however, I am going to name things from my experience and things that are supposed to be the “best�.
The first step in editing is to read over the work, however, when you read over your own work you are going to automatically correct things in your head. To remedy this read your work out loud to yourself, this will catch most of the errors (whether they are grammatical, or dialogue issues) and you should be able to see the plot line. You should also mark things as you edit, whether it be on a hard copy with your choice writing utensil or fixing it as you go in a word document. Once you read through it this way, if you really want to catch as many mistakes as possible, read through it backwards. This will really make you analyze things as you are going to have to make sense of the words when they are out of order.
Another big tip in editing your own work is to remove yourself as far as possible from the work and take an unbiased stand point. Then, go through it like you are reading it as the reader, not the writer. Take notes as you go, don’t write on the actual piece unless you feel a great need to, and once you are done come back as the writer and review it all. This will help you see your work in a new light and hopefully help you see the flaws that other people might see in your work. So, embrace the new season and find a writing work of yours and have at it!
Since I could spend pages discussing editing and revising tips I will make this quick and short, focusing on a couple big tips that will help you edit your own pieces, because, after all, we aren’t all lucky enough to have someone who can look over our writings. If anyone has anything to contribute please speak up, we all are exposed to different things and have been taught different ways; however, I am going to name things from my experience and things that are supposed to be the “best�.
The first step in editing is to read over the work, however, when you read over your own work you are going to automatically correct things in your head. To remedy this read your work out loud to yourself, this will catch most of the errors (whether they are grammatical, or dialogue issues) and you should be able to see the plot line. You should also mark things as you edit, whether it be on a hard copy with your choice writing utensil or fixing it as you go in a word document. Once you read through it this way, if you really want to catch as many mistakes as possible, read through it backwards. This will really make you analyze things as you are going to have to make sense of the words when they are out of order.
Another big tip in editing your own work is to remove yourself as far as possible from the work and take an unbiased stand point. Then, go through it like you are reading it as the reader, not the writer. Take notes as you go, don’t write on the actual piece unless you feel a great need to, and once you are done come back as the writer and review it all. This will help you see your work in a new light and hopefully help you see the flaws that other people might see in your work.
So, embrace the new season and find a writing work of yours and have at it!
Previously written by Irene, Chief Moderator