How do you self-edit your work?

Quote by ]Hello everyone!
I'm absolutely horrendous at editing my own writing prior to submission. Yes, I've read, re-read, and "know" all the rules of grammar, etcetera.

However, when I go to edit or check my work I don't "see" my own errors, I more or less "see" what I meant, rather than what I wrote. I'm sure that the moderators now probably give my stories to each other as punishment!

I'd like to have a much more keen sense of editing and structure. It isn't that I don't know, I just don't catch my own errors.

Do you have any tricks or methods that you use to maximize your accuracy when you self-edit your own work?

thank you
K

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
Prat of the reaosn thnigs get misssed is beacuase the brian is trikced itno skippnig wodrs, and this is especailly treu deu to familairtiy with wrod odrer and positoin.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith


My biggest problem when writing is not carrying on from where I left off, but going back to the beginning to reread, and I end up editing some of it, work my way to the part I stopped at last time, and run out of steam.

Quote by krystalg
Hello everyone!
I'm absolutely horrendous at editing my own writing prior to submission. Yes, I've read, re-read, and "know" all the rules of grammar, etcetera.

However, when I go to edit or check my work I don't "see" my own errors, I more or less "see" what I meant, rather than what I wrote. I'm sure that the moderators now probably give my stories to each other as punishment!

I'd like to have a much more keen sense of editing and structure. It isn't that I don't know, I just don't catch my own errors.

Do you have any tricks or methods that you use to maximize your accuracy when you self-edit your own work?

thank you
K

Quote by Caramel_Infidel

Sharing your work with an editor or trusted friend before you publish is the best advice. But, you specifically asked about self-editing. Not wanting to share your work with an “outsider” is perfectly valid and purely your prerogative.


The most up-to-date version of Microsoft Word comes with the “Read Aloud” option. You can launch it via the Alt+Ctrl+Space keyboard shortcut. While in operation, the controls should appear to the right of your screen (Previous, Play, Next, Settings, and Stop buttons).

Read Aloud defaults to the Microsoft David voice. If you don’t like it, click the Settings button. Under Voice Selection, change it to either the female Microsoft Zira voice or the male Microsoft Mark voice, which is slightly higher than David. You can also change reading speed via a sliding bar. The review tab also allows you to launch spelling and grammar from there as well.

If you don’t have Microsoft Word, there are freeware options that are comparable. I’ve tested Balabolka, Balabolka Portable, Zabaware’s free Text-To-Speech Reader, and Natural Reader (an online service). They all seem to work just as well as Word’s Read Aloud feature. And, yes, they will read profanity, slang, dirty words, and curse/cuss words just fine. ?

I hope this is helpful for you.

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know

Okay, kidding. I do make my share of mistakes. A Spell/grammar checker can be helpful to catch minor errors, but you have to be cautious because while it catches about 85% of errors, some of those errors could be intentional style choice (especially when it comes to dialog). Also, because they don't do well with context, they are prone to making almost as many errors as they fix.

I use Google Docs, which has a pretty good grammar and spellcheck feature. Before I publish a chapter, I copy/paste it into Microsoft Word just to see if there's anything a different program catches. Then I do a read through looking for errors that the algorithm struggle with, (like when I accidentally write "ad" instead "as" for the thousanth time). 

Last I do a read-through for how the writing flows. If I find myself skimming, I know I wrote something boring. If I find myself hitching on a description or sentence structure, I rework that section.

Nothing beats a real editor, but when I don't have one this works well enough.

Being a non native English writer/speaker, I had to develop strategies to help get my stories through moderators (first story was refused on first submission for very good reasons). Here is what I do.

• While writing the story, I write it as it goes, I do not fuss about errors or misspelling. I just want to put on paper my creative idea.
• Once the story is fully written, I review the story many times for finding issues with wording, words too often used and other structural issues. I correct grammar if I find some, but I do not focus on it. It is now that I recite my story out loud. It's weird and thankfully I'm living alone, but it helps as you find those turn of phrase that are weird or words that could be replaced for more fitting words.
  
• Once the story is to my liking, I pass it through Grammarly. The free version is good enough for me, but look at the paid offering if you want to have advanced suggestions (have not tested, cannot say if it is good or not). Though, note that Grammarly is not perfect, do not simply accept all corrections, think about each of them before you commit.
• Then, I use my cheatsheet. I created a document where I put all of my common mistakes, from homonyms I confuse (e.g. licking, liking; breath, breathe;), specific spelling for specific situations, turn of phrase that aren't correct ("if ... would" is my sin), words that are better than more generic words (all vs every; small vs short vs thin), and more. This document should evolve as you write, add things that you see you often do, remove others that you have finally mastered. I usually find many things to correct at this point, even though I've done manual correction, Grammarly, Word and the lot.
• My second to last step is to read it on my Kindle, in bed, relaxed, not in a "let's correct this story" mode. As some others has noted, changing how you present the story can help you.
• Finally, I prepare the story on Lush and do the preview. I re-read it and usually find one or two things.

Here you go, hope it helps. Of all this, I strongly suggest you create a cheatsheet. I find it very good to focus on one thing to correct at a time, search for that specific issue in my story, correct it if necessary, then move to the next item to look for.

Quote by krystalg
Hello everyone!
I'm absolutely horrendous at editing my own writing prior to submission. Yes, I've read, re-read, and "know" all the rules of grammar, etcetera.

However, when I go to edit or check my work I don't "see" my own errors, I more or less "see" what I meant, rather than what I wrote. I'm sure that the moderators now probably give my stories to each other as punishment!

I'd like to have a much more keen sense of editing and structure. It isn't that I don't know, I just don't catch my own errors.

Do you have any tricks or methods that you use to maximize your accuracy when you self-edit your own work?

thank you
K

I was given a great piece of advice. I use chrome and android. I downloaded a TTS (Text to Speech and listen to my stories as I drive or do other chores. It lets me know if I need to edit more or if it's ready to publish. I also find errors my eyes missed dozens of times. 

Besides getting some tips and advice here, I want to mention I feel much better knowing my struggles with editing stories is not uncommon.  I identify so closely with the errors and tribulations others have mentioned here.  Thanks to all who have commented.

Grammarly helps me with that. It not only gives you the edit but tells you why it needs to be changed. That allows me to learn exactly why what I've done is wrong and improve on it in the future.

Grammarly is a huge help for me. It’s a bit pedantic at times, other times it makes no sense, but 98% of the time, it’s helpful.

To be realistic, dialogue may often be grammatically incorrect, but it will still correct it. These suggestions can be ignored if you want to retain the colloquial.

Edit and re-edit, over and over and over and over and over and over ... well, you get the idea. After I've finished the initial brain dump of getting my story out, then I start going over it repeatedly. The first few times usually involve some pretty heavy editing, moving whole paragraphs or sections around. I'm amazed how much I repeat the same thought multiple times in different ways on the first write, so I try to prune those out.

Even after I've got what seems like a half-decent story, more or less publishable with few if any outright errors, I go over it a bunch more times. I try to make the dialogue snappier, my internal monologue more concise, the pre-sexual tension more delicious, the action hotter, the physical descriptions more evocative. I can easily end up going through the story a dozen times, sometimes more than twenty, before I'm satisfied with it. I usually don't consider it ready until I can do a full read-through with few if any corrections or improvements, though I admit sometimes I lose patience and jump the gun on that.

I try to read it out loud to myself at least a couple of those times, if no one is within earshot ... or at least mouth the words with my lips to make sure I'm processing every word, every punctuation mark, and not just skimming or speed-reading, which is all too easy to do when you're reading your own work. I haven't used text-to-speech (maybe I'm not comfortable with the potential data collection of those apps), but maybe I'll at least try the native Apple functionality one of these times.

And then as soon as it's published, I see things I could improve upon. I don't dwell on it too much, though. Published is published, and I try to move on to the next stories in the hopper, learn from those mistakes and keep improving my writing.

Miss Pixel does the final edit on all my scribbles. She is harsh, but inevitably correct in her judgments.

Can't believe I never replied to this. My self-editing process is as follows:

Re-read out loud several excruciating times. This helps me amend anything that doesn't sound right such as redundant phrases and overall suckage.

Somewhere in these several out loud rereads, I open a new document and paste sentences I believe need to be rewritten at the top, then do the rewrite below it. After, I paste the rewritten sentence where the original was in the original document.

Use an online tool that highlights repetitive words, two word and three word phrases. This part usually helps my stories to really start sounding like something, because the majority of the redundancies are eliminated.

Run it through the free version of Grammarly.

Do a final reread out loud and checking specifically for my dialogue formatting.

Talk myself into not being overly attentive so that I can finally paste it into the Lush editor and hit 'Submit.'

I've only had stories returned 2 or 3 times for the 2.5 years I have been on Lush, so I must be doing something right.