Editing

The entire writing process I find a challenge, but the most difficult has to be the editing stage. I'm afraid I don't have much of a critical eye when it comes to my own writing. I recognize its importance, and I also recognize that it is not where my strengths lie.

I try a variety of techniques to trick myself into doing a better job. I typically read the manuscript backwards to forwards after writing it and I also read aloud.

However, despite these tricks, I still end up wincing when I look at what gets published. One would think I would have caught some of these simple errors earlier, but nope...completely blinded to it.

I've also used a checklist, but I don't seem to have the commitment to seeing the list through chapter by chapter.

I bring all this up as Rob and I are currently editing our first full length narrative and we have a lot of editing to do to get it into some kind of shape.

So far, we have surprised ourselves a little bit and worked out a few clever tricks to build on our narrative that I'm quite happy with.

If you have any editing tips you would like to share, please post in the comments.