Skip to main content

Editing Blues: Some Tips to Edit Your Writing

Friends, I have a very low opinion of my own editing. I tend to write a lot, but when it comes to editing, I tend to forget too much. I forget my own rules of thumb, what I know already, and err on silliest rules of grammar. That’s why I get sometimes rejection at Constant-Content when I submit my articles for the first time. But later on, I sit a few hours picking out minute errors in the article. Only afterward do I get the approval from the editor.

When this issue persisted, I went ahead and raised a thought in their forum, attracting other writers’ opinions about editing. Here are some of the opinions I got from some of those authors and some of mine.

Font Zoom

When I write in MS Word, I always keep the font at New Times Roman 12 pt. But the zoom level is very high at 180 %. This monster zoom enables me to see my writing very clearly and find out mistakes easily. Mostly, one read-through is enough to spot most errors. When the letters are larger and stare right at you, so do the errors. Whatever your pet font is, put the zoom to a very high level to spot more mistakes.

Listen to Your Writing

Some of my co-authors in Constant-Content suggested this for me. There are many pieces of software doing Text-To-Speech (TTS). Use one of them to listen to your own writing. It is easier to spot your errors this way. One such software, which I use for several years now (for listening to e-books and online journals), is ReadPlease. You can download this software free from that link. It comes equipped with the Microsoft TTS engine and can read the text just fine.

Plan Your Editing

Edit your writing by paragraphs, and once a paragraph is edited to perfection, tag it by coloring it. This way, you can gradually get ahead in your editing. One edit may be enough mostly, this way, to get your article edited to perfection.

Editing Delay

The most important tip, perhaps, is this. Before you begin your editing, you should allow your article to catch some dust. Leave it out to brood for two days, and then retouch the article. This is often good because you will get to see the article through a fresher, clearer state of mind. That state will spot more errors for you. Try it out, and you will be surprised at the errors and areas of awkwardness staring at you.

Most authors have suggested this. Look at Ed Patterson’s previous post on revising novel. Many writers give a delay of even months before retouching their writing. But in case of the web world, it’s like news articles. You can’t afford to put a delay of more than 2 days or so. So, give it at least one day before editing it.

Print out and Edit

My editor, Ed at CC suggested this. Printing out whatever you write and then editing it gives you a better look at the article. Looking at the monitor straining your eyes is not a great way to edit your writing. So, have a good printer ready in your office and print the article out soon after you finish it. And use marker for setting off those stinking regions. Edit it back in your article.

Show It to Your Friend

If one of your friends, knowing good English, is nearby, get him/her to see your article, and get his opinion. Many professional writers suggest this. And having a different eye scan your work is good because there are many regions in a written content, which are there due to your love of it. And your love of something doesn’t make it great. So, have a different pair of eyes scan it and see if they are actually very aesthetic.

Reading Backward

If you can read your article bottom-up, you may see more errors, and would know if the flow is right or not. Because flow is extremely important for your articles, you should see if it is right or not. This is also a suggestion made by a friend from Constant-Content.

Have your say here. What do you think of the tips given here? Please tell me.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Comments

  1. Hi Lenin:

    Just wanted to comment on the "delay" factor needed between a draft and a revision. When I said "seven weeks," I was referring to a novel between 50,000 and 250,000 + words. Some authors put their draft manuscripts in the draw for a year or more. The reason for the delay should not be ignored.

    Time cleanses your creative mind and sets up your technical mind. The draft of any work should scintillate with the original spark, but since you're engaged in that process, you can't be trusted to see the brilliance the gems can become. Writing skills and revision skills are different and seven weeks is the minumum time needed,IMHO, to trot out a different set of tools. You are most unlikely to kill your darlings the day after they are born. Who can drown their young? But I'll take a willing axe to a "brtty teenage passage" after I have put those precious creative skills in the back drawer and whittle with the revision tools.

    I have dozens of other hints (some very obsure, almost to be arcane, but taught to me . . . well if I told you the acquisition sources, I'd have to kill you, darling). But I will share another bagful soon. Meanwhile, another suggestion: Be both drafting and revising simulatanously --- but on different works. I know it sounds like an assembly line, but you will never have writer's block if you are working on several works at once with all your tools out, fingers flying across the keyboard in your Jane Austen lockaway.

    Edward C. Patterson

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated very strictly

Popular posts from this blog

Power of Short Sentences

Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems

Creative Writing: Crafting Characters With Emotional Appeal in Mind

When you read the greatest fiction works ever, have you ever asked what was so compelling about them that you not only kept reading it, but you ended up reading all other major works of the writer? It may well be because the writer touched your emotional quotient quite a bit. Every reader has a unique taste . Some like to read suspense thrillers , some tender love stories, and some others dark horror and bloodshed stories . That’s why there are all sorts of genres out there. When a writer gives you what exactly you want, you will keep reading. Here we come to the emotional appeal. Character Imperfection Perfect characters may not always be the upshot of a writer’s deliberation. It may well be due to ignorance . Usually the upcoming writers take it for granted that if they create perfect characters, they will be able to garner a bigger audience . It is not true. You have to ask yourself what a character would do in a particular situation. Perfect characters—perfect gunmen, perfect

Another Tiny List of Confusables

Earlier, you may remember we published a list of confusable words . Here we are again, with such a list of words. Abjure/Adjure: Abjure means "to formally renounce (give up) something" such as a position. Adjure on the other hand means 'to appeal to' or 'solemnly order'. The governor decided to abjure his position due to political pressure. Normally, adjuring to the subordinates doesn't give many results. Amount/Number: Use amount when you have uncountable subject. Use number when it is countable. The amount of love one gets depends on the number of friends one has. Appraise/Apprise: Appraise is the word applied to quantitative evaluation of something. Apprise means 'communicate' or 'inform'. Appraising diamonds is the work of an expert. Joe apprised me of the schedule of events. Attorney/Lawyer/Solicitor: These terms are highly misinterpreted and confused by many people. Let me clarify. In the US, an attorney is any member