Self-Editing Tips for Writers
These self-editing tips are based collectively on submissions from my adult creative writing workshops. They are tips meant for advanced rather than beginning writers, though they apply to almost every writer. They are generally more helpful in editing a first draft into a second draft, so don’t feel like you need to keep them in mind as you are writing. Get your writing onto the paper first. That’s the most important part. Then pick ONE of the following tips and edit for that.
Sentence structure variety: The more, the better. You want long, short, and medium sentences in every paragraph. (For my grammar snobs and English teachers: you want simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences in every paragraph.) Try to avoid two sentences with a similar rhythm right next to one another, unless it’s really on purpose. For example, you don’t want a whole bunch of sentences clumped together that have a comma followed by “and.”
Beware of your “pet” word or phrase. Most writers have a few things they say way too much in their writing. (Mine are “suddenly,” “of course,” and “it seemed.” You probably know yours. If you don’t, you can ask a reader to try to figure it out.) Do a word search for these phrases and replace them wherever possible.
Watch the clichés: If an image, description, or metaphor rings a bell, there’s a pretty good chance it’s a cliché. It can be surprisingly hard to think outside the box enough to find the clichés in your own writing, so ask a trusted friend to go through your work with a fine-toothed comb and see what catches their eye.
Stephen King’s advice on adjectives and adverbs: Get rid of them whenever possible. It’s good advice. It forces you to make the nouns and verbs do the heavy lifting, meaning-wise. For example, if you’re saying “ran quickly,” why not just say “sprinted?” Then again, you can also just say “ran,” because the “quickly” part is implied. If you are an adjective- or adverb-addict, try saving a draft of your work, then making a copy and trying to remove every single adjective and adverb from the copy. If there are a few lingering adjectives or pesky adverbs you just simply can’t part with, those are most likely the ones you really, genuinely need- or you’re just being an editing wimp.
Parenthesis: In the end, you almost never need them. They are often a sign of information that you thought of while writing that you wish you’d included earlier in the piece (so if you find that they pop up in a lot of your early drafts, that’s okay). On the second draft, try to find a better home for the information you initially placed in parenthesis.
(c) Roxanna Elden
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