Self-editing tips

Whether you are wanting to self-edit before giving it to a professional and saving yourself some $$$ or you are self-editing because you don’t plan to use an editor, you want to get it right!

Remember, it is always good to have a second set of eyes, even if they’re not a professional!

My 5 tips:

1. give yourself some time
2. read out loud
3. create a style-sheet
4. use a spell-checker
5. print your manuscript

1. Give yourself time

 Take a step back from your writing and allow your brain time to focus on other things. One of the biggest challenges with self-editing is that you know what you wanted to say. If you start editing as soon as you finish writing, you will be blind to a lot of errors in your work because your brain is filling in the details and is still in creative-mode. 

So, leave it alone for a week or a month. If it is a longer document, I would recommend at least two weeks. 

Then, get ready to edit!

2. Read to yourself out loud

Sometimes the best way to catch the errors in your document is to read out loud. It helps you to determine if your pacing and flow is right.

Things reading out loud can help you identify: 

• does my dialogue sound natural?
• are my sentences too long or too short?
• are my sentences always the same length?
• does my sentence make sense?
• have you made a change in your document, but now it has introduced another error?

3. Create a style-sheet

What is a style-sheet? In this instance, it refers to a document which contains all of the editing decisions you make. For example, do your dot points start with a capital or lowercase (like mine)? Are you using British, American or Australian English? Have you chosen to abbreviate or hyphenate words?

A style-sheet helps you to stay consistent as you are working through your document. 

P.S. you can use your style-sheet to use Find & Replace in Word as a trick to make your editing more efficient!

4. Use a spell-checker

It is the cry from editors everywhere: a spell-checker is not enough!

Well, yes we know. But, that isn’t to say they don’t serve a purpose. It can be great to catch those annoying, niggly things. And, why not use the technology at your disposal?

But proceed with caution: sometimes they are wrong!

5. Print your manuscript

Reserve this technique until you have finished everything else.

Why print? When reading from a screen, our eyes can get fatigued, making it harder to catch those details. But also, changing the format you are working in can make mistakes jump out at you!

It also feels a bit more like a book, so you are more in reading-mode than in writing-mode. 

Until next time,

Jess