Self-Editing, Anyone?
7 easy-peasy tactics for those who write
Do you self-edit your texts?
Or, you are with those writers who think it’s the editor’s, not their job to revise drafts?
If the latter, I’ve got bad news for you:
Self-editing is a must-have skill for anyone who writes: copywriters, bloggers, web content creators, guest writers, self-published authors… Let alone book writers whose self-editing skills influence the final decision of publishing houses.
❓ What self-edit technique do you practice?
I mean your actionable tactic, not the checklist of areas to find in drafts before submitting for editor’s review.
I’ve got seven that work best for me.
1— Sleep on It
Don’t self-edit after your draft is complete. Writing is energy-consuming, so you won’t have enough focus right after you put in the last period.
✨ Take a break.
The ideal variant would be sleeping well at night and returning to your text the next day or two. Refreshed, you’ll be more attentive and notice tiny drawbacks you’d miss if you read the text when tired.
No privilege like this?
Spend an hour in a park, take a cup of coffee or tea away from your computer, you name it. Change perspective so you can unwind and go back to work rested.
✨ A fresh perspective will create an emotional distance between you and your draft, which can help you stay objective when editing.
2 — Print It Out
Reading from print is more accurate than online.
(Why do you think publishing editors read paper manuscripts?)
The eye catches tiny details like spelling mistakes, run-ons, missed punctuation, logical mistakes, inconsistencies, etc. While online reading is more about scanning, printed documents encourage precise attention.
✨When you revise and edit the printed draft, use a red pen to track changes.
✨ You can also read it with a ruler to prevent scanning: It will cover the lower text, and your eye will not jump to it.
3 — Read Aloud
“If you are using dialogue — say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”
— John Steinbeck
Reading your text aloud helps you get a new perspective:
✨ You listen to lines that sound strange, notice poor sentence structures, and see your writing as its reader, not the author.
When reading aloud, you trigger different areas of the brain focusing on tiny details: word overuse, repetition, filler words, wishy-washy sentences, hard-to-read grammar constructions hurting a reading flow, etc.
✨ How to edit your text with this tactic:
- Don’t whisper but read it sentence by sentence aloud: Revise the places where your tongue “stumbles.”
- Ask someone to read it for you: Revise sentences and abstracts that lack clarity.
- Use text-to-speech programs: Revise unnecessary words, repetitions, and sentences that are audibly difficult to understand.
4— Start Reading From the End
“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
― Shannon Hale
This tactic will help you check spelling and grammar mistakes in texts:
✨ Start reading your draft backward. Check the last sentence first to perceive it separately, with no context of the overall writing. It’s another trick to “cheat” the brain and make it think differently:
You won’t scan the content as a whole but read each sentence as an independent item to notice mistakes you could miss while reading in a general way. This tactic works best on the last self-editing stage when you do the final proofreading.
5 — Edit Line by Line
Remember Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird?
✨Edit your writing line by line to notice issues like typos and grammatical errors.
This trick lets you look closer at your work, prevent scanning, and cut out filler words (eliminate passive voice, redundant adverbs, repeated words, etc.).
6 — Try the 10% Rule
The 10% rule comes from Stephen King, one of the most popular and best-selling authors of all time:
✨ Once you complete your first draft, delete 10% of it when self-editing.
That’s about unnecessary words and being vague: You don’t have to delete the parts you like; look for redundancies, repetitions, and word clusters you can replace for more persuasive and emotional alternatives.
7 — Ask a Friend to Read It for You…
… and tell you what they think.
There’s a big chance they will spot mistakes or question issues you didn’t notice or considered too obvious to explain.
✨ But here’s the catch:
Close friends or family members may fear hurting you with negative feedback, thus “moderating” their verdict not to sound too harsh.
✨You need a person from a related niche whom you trust and know will be honest with you: a fellow writer, a bookworm who reads a lot and understands written language, or an independent editor ready to revise and comment on your work.
Case in point:
Two fellow writers are reading the draft of my short fiction story now (it’s in Ukrainian, but I hope to translate it into English and publish it here). Guess what? They’ve made me rethink the protagonist’s motivations and add more detailed descriptions for the “Show, don’t tell” principle to work. ☺️
Over to you:
How do you self-edit your writings?
