Self Editing Before You Post

One thing that I have found lacking in many posts these days, is self editing. It's absolutely true that rough drafts are just that... rough. There is going to be spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and just general flaws in any rough draft. However, in my opinion, it is important to go through your writing on your own to weed out most of those flaws. As a reader and reviewer, going through a piece of writing I personally want to have to look for the flaws. When I open up a piece and all I can see is mistake after mistake blaring at me, it makes me not even want to read the rest.

When I read something that is riddled with flaws, with the feeling that it was thrown together in a matter of moments and then posted for critique. I think that as a reviewer, I deserve a little better than that!

So here are a few things that I do with my piece before I post it.

Read It Aloud

Read your writing aloud, you don't have to read it to anyone, but read it aloud for yourself. While you're reading ask yourself a few questions.

Does it flow?

Do I find myself repeatedly fumbling over sentences?

Does the dialogue feel natural?

Also, reading aloud will help you pinpoint grammatical errors much easier than just reading it.

Leave It Be!

Rather than posting something right after you've written it, give it a few days to stew. Once you've let the writing settle for a bit, reread it and see how you feel about it then. Often times, after giving something a few days, you can spot mistakes easier, and find places where the flow is off. For me, writing isn't something that I do often, so after I do I am so excited to share what I have written I post it right away, so I understand the urge. But trust me, letting it sit and then coming back to it will eventually lead to better writing.

Then post it!

Tiff, this is fantastic. ^^

My own proofreading tip:

Read it backwards. By doing that, you're actually reading the word and not the sentence. It's time consuming, but reading my work backwards was the only way I caught several spelling mix-ups.

Don't sweat the small stuff to much, though. The most important thing is that the basic structure is good. You don't want to waste time polishing poop.

Rather than posting something right after you've written it, give it a few days to stew.

I think this is the best advice! I can never self-edit something that I just wrote. I think what goes on is that since I know what I want to say or meaning to say, I don't notice the grammatical mistake. But if I leave it alone for a few days, I no longer necessarily remember what I meant to say. Thus, the mistakes become more noticeable.

And reading aloud always works. It just forces you to read each word in a slow manner.

Excellent work Tiff!

I know I used to be a little guilty for posting almost right away. But, after reviewing pieces that are just riddled with errors, you come to appreciate those who go over their work lots before posting.

This is an absolutely wonderful tip! Editing out those mistakes you can catch on your own opens up the opportunity for other writers to catch things you couldn't have fixed alone. Very good. Thanks, Tiff!

Excellent advice, Tiff! Especially the part about waiting for a couple of days, until you can kind of seperate yourself from the writing a bit to analyze it better. I should probably do that more.

(Might want to re-read the third sentence in the first paragraph, though. There's a little grammar slip-up, if I'm not mistaken, and I thought perhaps you'd want to fix that since that's essentially what the article is about! Please forgive me if I'm being rude.)

Thanks! ^_^