how to get better at self-editing

Congratulations. You’ve finished your manuscript. Time to sit back and bask in your accomplishments.

For most writers, this moment of euphoria lasts about seven seconds before the ice-cold dread seeps in.  The moment has come. The moment they’ve been dreading. It’s time to edit.

The good news is, there are people who can help. Your friendly neighbourhood editor is poised to swoop in and polish your prose. The bad news is, you’ll have to do some legwork first.

Every writer needs to learn to self-edit. It saves your editor a lot of time and, more importantly, it saves you money. We all know editing isn’t cheap. As skilled professionals, editors charge what their time is worth. Moreover, a lot of us charge by the hour. The more polished your manuscript is, the less time we have to spend working on it. Also, professionally speaking, it’s not a good look to hand over a manuscript that hasn’t even undergone a cursory self-edit.

I understand why many writers hate this process. There are a lot of obstacles to successful self-editing, the biggest being your own brain.

The human brain is a wonderful and complex organism, capable of extraordinary moments of elevated brilliance. It can also be profoundly stupid, especially when it’s trying to be helpful.

People tend to think of brains as recording devices, absorbing our surroundings and feeding back infallibly accurate information. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In 1960, English psychologist Peter Wason coined the term ‘confirmation bias.’ This term describes the human tendency to recall and process information in a way that confirms our pre-existing expectations. When reading a passage of text, we unconsciously fill in blanks and compensate for inconsistencies based on what we think should be there. This presents obvious problems when it comes to editing your own work.

When you go back over a chapter, instead of reading what’s on the page, you’ll be reading what you thought you wrote. This is why it is incredibly difficult to spot your own mistakes. However, there are things you can do to mitigate the effects of confirmation bias and look at your work with fresh eyes.

give it time

Literally. The worst thing you can do is finish a chapter and then move straight on to editing. I’d advise waiting at least three weeks. Allowing some time to elapse between writing and editing gives two distinct advantages.

The first advantage is cognitive. If you’ve only just written something, the memory of what you meant to write is uppermost in your mind. Allowing some time to pass means you’ll be less influenced by what you thought you wrote and you’re more likely to spot your mistakes.

Secondly, waiting a few weeks creates some emotional distance between you and your work. Writers tend to be more attached to their words in the immediate aftermath of writing them. At that point, they’re acutely aware of the effort it took to get the words on the page, and the idea of erasing any of that hard work is distinctly unappealing. You’re more likely to judge the quality of your writing objectively if you allow yourself some emotional distance from the struggle of producing the manuscript.

read it out loud

This is an excellent trick. I can personally vouch for its efficacy. Neurological studies have shown there is a difference between the brain activity that occurs when you read in your head compared to when you read out loud.

Reading a text out loud adds an additional level of processing as we are absorbing a text as sound as well as image. This process has been proven to enhance information retention. It also helps with the editing process by adding an additional layer of separation between reader and text. When reading out loud, we are less likely to unconsciously correct anomalies, therefore errors jump out at us. 

When I was writing, I made a habit of reading my chapters out loud to my wife. Then I’d drive her mad by constantly stopping to make corrections.

go old school

It’s time to get back to basics. I’m talking about good old-fashioned pen and paper. Many writers and editors recommend printing out a copy of your manuscript and making corrections with a pen. If you really want to get into character, use a red pen.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that reading your manuscript in a different form makes it easier to spot errors. A change in perspective can change your relationship to your manuscript. Like reading out loud, printing a manuscript increases your distance from it. Rather than opening the same digital document you’ve spent months working on, you’re approaching the text from a perspective closer to that of a first time reader. This altered perspective brings fresh insight to your work and may be enough to dupe your brain into turning off that pesky auto-correct.

And as an added bonus, holding a printed manuscript is extremely satisfying. You can literally feel the weight of your accomplishment.

make sure you know what you’re looking for

Editing an entire manuscript is an intimidating task. A lot of writers say they feel overwhelmed by the prospect.

As with most large, sprawling tasks, it can be helpful to break it down. Make a list of the things you’re looking out for. And don’t try to look for everything at once. For instance, on your first pass of the document, only look for extraneous adverbs, then move on to passive voice etc. Narrow your focus and not only will the task seem less daunting, but you’re less likely to miss things.

Like writing, self-editing is a skill, and skills are honed over time. Don’t give up, keep at it, and you will get better.