How do you self-edit your work?

Quote by joe71
I usually don't consider it ready until I can do a full read-through with few if any corrections or improvements

This is me too.

I hate editing. Hate it. My stories always get bigger when I edit which is weird. Grammarly catches a lot, then I record myself reading the story aloud and close my eyes and listen to the play-back of my recording.

I used to use the pro version of Grammarly but now use ProWritingAid. Kind of like Scrivener, it’s so powerful that there’s a bit of a learning curve. But I’ve become a better writer by using it.

Actually, one of the things I like most about it is that it reads the raw Scrivener files and edits them in place. I can go from Scrivener to PWA and back without losing formatting or having to cut and paste.

Copiously, repetitively, and in great detail. Such a bore at times when I just want to get on writing!

Quote by JustAMan

Read it backwards first.

Then you get Satanic messages

I have to use Grammarly which really helps me, also my husband reads through it with a fresh pair of eyes. After he is no longer horny 😉 I go back to it in a couple of days.

I see a couple upthread which were probably mine. I use software to check for typos and obvious grammar errors. I read and re-read copiously, editing as a I go. For longer pieces, esp. comps, I'll let it "simmer" for 24-48 hours when I have what I think is a final draft, then go back at it again. Stuff leaps out that I completely missed before when I do that, not just obvious mistakes, but things that could worded better, moved, etc. to improve the flow of the story. Even stupid logic errors like characters behaving inconsistently or stray plot or scene elements that should have been removed due to previous changes (you know the sort of thing probably, I describe a woman wearing a pink dress and then two paragraphs later it's red with yellow polka-dots because I changed it in a rewrite and missed a sentence).

I find the easiest way to spot mistakes is publish it. Any that I’ve missed suddenly become apparent as soon as it’s too late to do anything about it… especially in Comps where you can’t take down and re-edit

Quote by deviantsusie

I find the easiest way to spot mistakes is publish it. Any that I’ve missed suddenly become apparent as soon as it’s too late to do anything about it… especially in Comps where you can’t take down and re-edit

I know right? Nothing worse than having a facepalm moment the day after publishing or, worse, having a commenter point something out.

Quote by deviantsusie

I find the easiest way to spot mistakes is publish it. Any that I’ve missed suddenly become apparent as soon as it’s too late to do anything about it… especially in Comps where you can’t take down and re-edit

lol - too true.

Quote by JustAMan

Read it backwards first.

this is, actually, my method. it works, too, imo

Absolutely everybody makes errors. I'm a pro translator working from English to French, which is my first language. I earn my living through writing. I have stories in French on Literotica and in spite of my attentive proof reading on Word with some solid autocorrection, I still see errors here and there, even in my French stories after publication.

For my works on LushStories, I always write them on Word and I set the English on "Canadian" if the story is not set in USA. The setting is "American" if the story takes place in USA or the main character is American. This way, my spelling will be uniform. This is especially important of I'm to use American spelling, since I've served in the Royal Navy and got used to the Canadian/British spelling.

I don't like self-editing, but it is essential. If I have to rewrite paragraphs, I go all over them again only to make sure all is written correctly.

Verb tenses sometimes get under my skin. When I'm writing a story in the present tense, I have a tendency to revert to past tense. Sometimes, I only notice this two pages down the road and I have to fix that!

I will sometimes play with my verb tenses, and when I do this, the reason I'm doing so will be apparent in the story. It will be something like, "it was so wonderful that it was over all too soon; the action was already past even in the heat of the moment" or something like that, so my readers will know why the tense switches from present to past (in that particular case) or from past to present.

But, yeah, in a nutshell, I work using Word and carefully reread everything. Sometimes, I will reread the story again after copy-pasting it here, before striking the "Publish" button.

Reading the story backwards... I'll give it a try!

So long, guys! Have a great day/evening/night!

HistBuff

I bribe Sprite and Krystalg.

Much less stress for me that way.

No, I first read it out loud, then read it backwards like many others have mentioned.

I have just found Grammarly and am waiting to see how it works. My favorite Mods best the crap out of me everytime I write something. What really pisses me off is that they are usually right. God I love them so much...

Quote by Icarus4

I have just found Grammarly and am waiting to see how it works. My favorite Mods best the crap out of me everytime I write something. What really pisses me off is that they are usually right. God I love them so much...

The next time I mod one of your stories, I'll instruct you to do a bunch of incorrect stuff!

You might also try using Languagetool in tandem with Grammarly. Everything I write gets run through Languagetool and then through Grammarly. Neither one catches everything, and the two don't agree with each other, but LT catches some things Gramamrly doesn't and vice-versa.

Grammarly makes some ridiculous suggestions. I binned it ages ago.

I tend to now do the zoom in/out trick. Just increasing the font size by a point or two helps things look different enough on the page that some errors leap out.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Grammarly makes some ridiculous suggestions. I binned it ages ago.

I tend to now do the zoom in/out trick. Just increasing the font size by a point or two helps things look different enough on the page that some errors leap out.

That is so simple but actually very smart! Added that to the check list.

Knowing how helps. Taking a break from it, looking at it a different way, like others said; moving it to another processor. I know some sites allow FireFox or Googles spell check and basic grammar check, some apps, like Reddit allows Googles grammar and spell check. This site happens to not be one. For me, simply switching Word mobile from print view to webview helps, so does whatever text box on whatever submission site as my final review. I don't do a lot of editing, personally, try to get it right the first time and catch myself during. There are beta readers and editors who write and don't use either, so it isn't that arduous a task.

I obsessively reread it over and over again. I'm still not very good at it. I let mistakes get through pretty often.

Very slowly. But after I arrive at something that feels complete, I use the speech function on my computer to read it back to me. Its pronunciations and cadence are sometimes awkward, but problems tend to stand out.

Quote by visioneer

Very slowly. But after I arrive at something that feels complete, I use the speech function on my computer to read it back to me. Its pronunciations and cadence are sometimes awkward, but problems tend to stand out.

That's something I still need to try. For my next story, perhaps.

Lately, I'v been using the courtesy security paper shredder at my bank. Gives my stories the kind of cleanup they deserve.

I read it several times, usually over a couple of days. I know some writers on here prefer to write quickly and then edit after, but I often write a couple of paragraphs before checking, then do several run-throughs using Grammarly when I've finished, although It doesn't pick up everything. I also read out loud to assess how well it flows, especially with dialogue, and the change between paragraphs.

Time and distance are an author's secret weapon, imo. Whether it's a few weeks, months or years gives you enough time to have forgotten the details and approach it with fresh eyes. Errors and improvements often just pop out.

Resisting the temptation to publish immediately is the hardest part.

Grammerly

Quote by Icarus4

Grammerly

I have a love/hate relationship with Grammarly. I don’t feel it gets me. 🙄

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I have a love/hate relationship with Grammarly. I don’t feel it gets me. 🙄

This. I have a hate-hate relationship with it. So much, in fact, I deleted it. And don't miss it.

I cheerfully hate grammarly. I feel like you should use it like training wheels. It's useful until you know what you're doing, but then you should ditch it, otherwise you'll never find your own voice and style. I ran a story of mine through it recently, and it spat out about 30 'corrections', none of which I agreed with.

I obsessively edit my own work, to the point it takes me out the story and I just stop writing. This is probably why I average one story every four years, lol.

Quote by Jen
I cheerfully hate grammarly.

Have never tried it but haven't been fond of other grammar apps.

Quote by Jen
I obsessively edit my own work, to the point it takes me out the story and I just stop writing. This is probably why I average one story every four years, lol.

Oh good, someone who is more perfectionist about their writing than me. But I know whereof you speak. I find writing for comps actually helps since the deadline forces me to curtail myself at some point. OTOH, the prize incentive kind of makes it worse at the same time.

I rarely ever self edit my writing which explains why it is so frequently rejected….returned. If it isn’t accepted the first go around it is deleted.