10 Tips to Edit Your Way to Great Writing
Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2011
by Carol Hess
Tame the Writing Monster
When it comes to editing our own writing, it’s hard to strike the right balance. Either we hate everything we’ve written and over edit until there’s nothing left, or we love everything we’ve written and can’t bear to part with a single word.
I fall into the latter category. I start out wordy and end up wordy. When I cut out a word, I feel like I’m cutting out a body part. I use a red pen. (Once an editor, always an editor.) Even the least amount of red ink on my beloved writing looks and feels like my life’s blood dripping away.
Well, no matter what kind of editor you are, here are 10 tips that will help you edit your way to great writing.
1. Don’t edit while writing.
You use two different parts of your brain when you write and when you edit. If you edit while you write, not only do you risk shutting down your creative juices just when they are starting to flow, but you just might get a brain cramp! (I will be the first one to admit that not editing while you write is very difficult, but it’s worth a try.)
2. Give yourself enough time to edit.
If possible, wait 24 hours before you start to edit what you’ve written. Yes, I know. You’re probably working under a tight deadline. I get it. That’s the way I write too. That’s why I said “if possible.” This is another one of those rules that’s hard to follow but worth giving a shot.
3. Don’t edit from your computer screen.
Now this rule I must absolutely insist upon. It’s no good editing on a computer screen. You just won’t do a good job. Trust me on this. Take the time to print out what you’ve written – preferably double-spaced so you have plenty of room to write your corrections. (It’s your choice what color ink you use.)
4. Create a new document for each round of revisions.
Why bother to do this? You’ll be surprised how often you change your mind about a deletion you made or the way you swapped those paragraphs. Creating a new document for each revision allows you to turn the editing clock back.
5. Edit for the internet, not your English teacher.
The internet has its own writing rules and regulations, and I can guarantee they don’t match what your fifth grade English teacher told you. Remember who your audience is. They have very little time and therefore a short attention span. They appreciate pages with lots of white space, visuals, headings, sub-headings, short paragraphs, and simpler sentence construction. Give them what they want. They’re the ones grading you now.
6. Edit first for content.
This is what I call taking the eagle’s eye view of your writing piece. Step back and look at your piece as a whole. Does it address the audience for which it was intended? Is it accomplishing what you want it to accomplish? Does it say what you wanted to say? Does it make sense? Does it flow naturally and logically?
7. Read your piece out loud.
This is the best way I know to catch the inevitable rough patches in your writing. If you stumble or hesitate, then your reader will too. Fix it. Make sure your writing is as smooth as a baby’s bottom or a 30 year-old Scotch – your choice.
8. Edit for detail – mouse view 1.
From the soaring view of the eagle, I now want you to crawl down to the ground level view of the mouse, and I want you to do it twice. This first crawl is a bit more global and not quite as picky as the second crawl. Do you grab your reader’s attention right away? Do your headings and sub-headings tell a story all by themselves? Will they draw your reader forward through the piece? Are you consistent in your verb tenses? Do you use the active voice as much as possible?
9. Edit for detail – -mouse view 2.
Now it’s time to get even closer to the ground and crawl ever so slowly through your writing. Less is more in writing, so the first thing you want to do is eliminate any unnecessary words. Start with “that” and “very” and adverbs (usually end in “ly”).
Move on and hunt out gerunds – verb forms ending in “ing” that act as nouns. They weaken your copy. Eliminate them. This is also when you are going to tidy up your grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Do not rely on your computer to do it for you. It does a lousy job.
10. Proofread, proofread, and proofread again.
Your mother was right. You only have one chance to make a good impression. So that means you need to proofread – a lot. And you’ll probably miss something because your eyes have a way of skipping over your own mistakes. So get someone else to proofread your writing too. There are lots of people like me out there who take their business elsewhere when they spot one too many typos or misspellings. Don’t lose our business. Proofread.
So there you have it – 10 tips that can make you look and sound a whole heck of a lot better.
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