The Dos and Don'ts of Self-Editing
- shrivastavaprisha5
- Jun 28, 2023
- 4 min read
You've finished writing your first draft. That final sentence feels like sweet victory—as it should. But your piece still has a long way to go before it's ready to be shared. You may feel overwhelmed, or even bored, as you look through your draft for technical things to fix. You could also get caught up in a rabbit hole of self-criticism as you come across seemingly endless flaws to agonize over. If you're like me, you'll manage to commit all of these. To help you conquer the editing process, I've put together a list of mistakes to look for in your work and habits to watch out for. Some are helpful tips from my personal experience, and others are from online sources, which I've linked at the end of this article if you'd like to learn more.
Without further ado, I present to you: the do's and don't's of self-editing!
Do: Cut yourself some slack. This, in my opinion, is the most important thing to remember. Perfectionism is convenient when your task is to perfect your piece, but no matter how many hours you spend editing, you'll always find something wrong. And a perfectionist will always reach a point where it's more helpful to let go and move on to the next task than to dwell on it. Do yourself a favor and move on. After going through the entire manuscript once or twice, if you're still feeling uneasy about its quality, a rule of thumb I like to use is to point out the specific parts that I don't like before diving into the process a third time. The process is much less overwhelming when you know what you're looking for.
Don't: Edit while writing your draft. I'm 100% guilty of this. The reason why this is a habit to break is because it disrupts the creative process. The purpose of writing a draft is to create a scaffolding of the ideas you have, and to tailor it later. Otherwise, you're rejecting your ideas before they even have the chance to become better.
Do: Save the proofreading for last. Maybe it was all the ACT prep, but I have a radar for grammar mistakes that I can't seem to turn off. Fixing all the spelling and punctuation errors may feel productive, but if you're doing it every time you rephrase and delete sentences, it's a waste of time. Fix the sentences once they're set in stone.
Don't: Delete entire sections. Hear me out. Yes, you'll inevitably come across scenes that are completely unnecessary for the plot, and it will be best to cut them out. But before deleting them, copy and paste them into a separate document and use that document to collect discarded scenes that could come in useful for future works. As an author writing multiple books, this hack has saved me time and effort for scenes that fit in better with other storylines (or even just later in the same storyline).
Do: Ask others to read through it. Whether you still consider this as "self-editing" or not, friends and family members are much more affordable and accessible than a professional editor, and can be just as helpful. You'll know your draft like the back of your hand after editing it a few times, but you'll also become numb to some mistakes that are more obvious to a newer set of eyes. Ask someone you trust to give feedback as they read. If you happen to be writing a novel like me, you may want to offer some incentive for your editing buddy to attentively read through the entire thing, like a batch of their favorite cookies. If you're not writing a novel, offer an incentive anyway. Just in case.
Don't: Start editing right away. Unless you have a pressing deadline, it's best to wait 2-4 weeks after finishing your draft before editing it. In the meantime, revel in your victory. Finishing a draft is an accomplishment to be celebrated with family and friends. This will keep you from becoming burnt out, and it'll also create distance from your work, which will provide you with the perspective necessary to make effective edits once you get back to it with a fresh mind.
Do: Edit line by line. It's all too easy to skim past the mundane paragraphs and edit the more interesting lines. But if you're skipping parts that may need more editing than the ones you're gravitating towards, you're not taking full advantage of the time you're investing into the editing process. If you're not editing line by line, you also may be burnt out, which means you need a break. Editing slowly and thoroughly is more effective than speeding through it hastily. Plus, if you're that bored of a certain part of the story and don't feel like editing it, chances are that it's just as boring to read as it was to write. In other words, you might actually need to spend the most time on sections like that.
For more tips about self-editing, check out these sources that I used:
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