How to Edit Your Own Work

While I usually recommend that aspiring authorsbe done either on your hard copy or on your
have an objective third party edit their work, thiscomputer - it's a matter of personal preference -
isn't always possible. Perhaps you don't have thebut make sure that you read each line carefully. It
money to pay for a professional editing job oris a reader's tendency to mentally correct
maybe you just aren't comfortable havingproblems without actually registering that there
someone else read your work until you're certainhas been an error, so make sure to concentrate
it's polished. As a writer, I can understand that.on each word as you read.
However, you face a few challenges when itHow to Edit Your Own Work: Substantive Editing
comes to editing your own work.Once you are certain that your line editing phase
The best writing is always done on the fly, whenis complete, you can begin on the substantive
you aren't thinking about spelling, grammar orportion. This is where you go back over the
continuity. If, while the actual writing is takingnotations you made during the preliminary
place, you are thinking about possible technicalread-through and make adjustments to the style,
errors, your sentences are likely to come outprose, dialogue and other substantive aspects of
stilted and generic, which is the Bane of everyyour manuscript. Don't be afraid to delete entire
writer's existence. This is why editing is soparagraphs or to rewrite entire chapters as long
important; it gives you an opportunity to makeas those changes are improvements to -- rather
sure that your writing makes sense and that it'sthan detractions from -- your writing.
appropriate to be shown to the world.How to Edit Your Own Work: Second Line Editing
How to Edit Your Own Work: The FirstThe substantive editing portion should be
Read-Throughimmediately followed by a second line-editing of
When you're ready to begin the editing process, Ithe manuscript. This is to catch errors that you
recommend a preliminary read-through. Don'tmight have made during your substantive editing,
concentrate on making suggestions; just read asand although it might seem tedious, this is a crucial
though you were paging through a novel youstep. Since your manuscript is quite close to
have been excited to start. When you comecompletion, you don't want to overlook important
across a paragraph or even a page that you feelerrors that need to be corrected, so make sure
needs work, make a brief notation in the marginthat you are concentrating rather than allowing
and continue on. Remember that your editingyour mind to drift.
should be done first on a hard copy that you'veHow to Edit Your Own Work: A Note About
printed off the computer; later, you can makeLength
smaller changes directly into your word processingEditing a full-length novel is quite a different
program. During the first read-through, don't focusprocess than editing a 1,500-word article. When
on grammar, spelling and other mechanical issuesworking with a book-length manuscript, make
because that will bog you down. Instead, look forsure that you give yourself periods of rest in
changes you'd like to make to the content ofbetween chapters so that you don't get sloppy. I
your manuscript, such as characterization, plotting,recommend editing a full chapter, then doing
continuity and dialogue.something else for fifteen minutes before going
How to Edit Your Own Work: Line Editingback to it. If you're more eager, separate editing
The second portion of your editing process shouldsessions into two- or three-chapter increments,
be line editing, which is the correction of spelling,but never edit more than fifty pages at a time.
grammar and other mechanical problems. This can