Self-Editing

Okay, I know it took me a while, but I’m making good on my promise. Here are some tips for editing your own work.

The issue with editing your own work is that your brain knows what it should say. There’s a little thing called “miscues” where your brain tells you that something says what it ought to say. (Do you remember in elementary school when a kid in class said a wrong word, and everybody giggled? (Jerks.) It’s not that the kid couldn’t read, it’s that his or her brain had given the kid false information based on what normally came up in their reading.) So, you have to trick your brain into thinking it’s seeing something new. There are a few different ways you can do this.

Read backwards – Start from the last sentence and work your way back. Receiving the information in a different order can make the information seem fresh. If you’re looking specifically for spelling errors and such, you can literally read each word backward. It won’t help with catching comprehension or description issues, but it can help with some of the nitpicky little things.

Draw lines through the text – This is also a trick for speed-reading, but that’s not what we’re looking for. You can draw 2-3 vertical lines down the page to segment the text into chunks. This change in appearance causes your brain to perceive the words differently, making you better able to see misspellings, grammatical errors, repeated words, and more.

Fresh eyes – One of the most effective self-editing tips I know is to TAKE A BREAK. You have written, revised, rewritten, edited, and re-edited the SAME words again and again and again. You’re exhausted and so is your poor brain. Give yourself some time, preferably at least a couple weeks without looking at your work at all. Not only will your brain have reset to some extent and be better able to see what’s there instead of what it thinks is there, but also, you will have your own fresh perspective and may notice things or get ideas that you didn’t before.

Change it up – Again, we’re trying to trick your brain. Another thing you can do to change the way your brain is seeing the same words is to change the color, font, and/or size of your work. You can have some fun with this and try multiple colors and multiple fonts.

New medium – If you normally read, write, and edit your work on a computer, try printing a hard copy. Seeing and feeling a tangible copy will be a different experience for your brain, and it will receive it differently, noticing new things. This also has the added benefit of being able to leave physical marks of your edits and ideas. If you normally do hand-written or print hard copies to edit, try reading it over on the computer or on your phone. Really, anything you can do to make your mind think it’s seeing something new will help.

Another set of eyes – I know we’re talking about self-editing, but I’m guessing you know someone who knows how to read. Ideally, you would try to find someone with a good knowledge of your genre and of basic grammar principles, but any literate human fluent in your language of choice should be able to read your work and find glaring mistakes, inconsistencies, or confusing elements. Depending on who they are and how big a favor you can ask them, maybe just give them a chapter or two. That can give you an idea of what to look for and what you can work on in other chapters.

Last but not least, cut yourself some slack. Writing is tough, and editing your own work can be exceedingly difficult. That’s your baby. It’s not out of the ordinary to have a hard time finding flaws in your baby, at least not all of them. Give it a couple passes and then step back or move on. Even professional editors miss things and make mistakes. Part of what made me start this business was the fact that when I read newspapers, magazines, and best-selling books (both traditionally-published and indie-pub) I found errors! I realized that even their hoity-paloity teams of editors weren’t perfect, so why on earth would I or you be?

Do what you can do, and get help if and when you feel you need it.

Good luck!