5 Tips For Self-Editing
by Sharron
Renée Rhodes
We all know that the price of a professional editor can be quite pricey at times, especially when you're on a household budget. So many self-published authors try their hand at self-editing.
Although writing the story may come naturally and easily, editing it may prove to be a bit more challenging. And let's face it... spellcheck doesn't always recognize words that are spelled correctly but are used in the wrong context. So I put together five editing tips to help improve your editing skills.
#1 - After completing your manuscript, set it aside for a couple of days. I suggest this because with editing, it is helpful to look at the manuscript with fresh eyes so that you don't edit from memory.
For example, you may have accidentally written "THE" instead of "THEM." If you know the story from memory, your brain will automatically read "THEM," not recognizing the word actually reads "THE."
So give your eyes and mind time to refresh.
#2 - Read aloud when editing. Reading aloud helps us to hear what we're saying, which allows us to catch those hard to read sentence structures and run on sentences.
#3 - Don't speed read from memory. Take the time to carefully and slowly read aloud every word, WORD from WORD. When typing, you can very easily miss ending letters to a word.
For example, typing "THE" instead of "THEM," "THEY," etc. or "AN" instead of "AND," "ANY," etc.
You may even accidentally double type words like, "in the the woods." Or you may miss words altogether. So reading aloud and slowly word from word can help catch those errors.
#4 - Edit the entire manuscript more than once. Don't rush to publish it. Make sure it is polished before sending it out into the world. Remember your work is a reflection of you.
If you complete the first edit in a week, maybe wait a whole week in between before doing the second edit and so forth. This space gives your eyes and mind time to refresh, which helps you catch the mistakes you may have missed the first time.
Working on another project in between may actually help take the manuscript out of memory.
#5 - After you've edited and polished your manuscript, find a friend or editing peer group to read it, and highlight any errors that they may find.
I hope these five tips were helpful. Please subscribe for more helpful tips.
