I want to be honest with you. I hate editing. It is hands down my least favorite part of writing online or in books. But, it is essential. We all know it. And we all want to believe we value editing. That’s why you need to start to edit with conviction.
But most of us would instead write and publish. Am I right?
Yet, I have realized that editing has made us better writers over the years. Whether it is self-editing or editing done by others, I have concluded that we need both in our lives.
I will share the two types of editing with you today so you can start upgrading your writing immediately. This updating will help you become better and move you closer to your writing dreams.
Editing with others.
When you write a book, you always need to hire an editor. It is essential. In this situation, you will send your entire manuscript to an editor and work with them for some time polishing that piece or work.
However, with online content, editing with others can look very different. One way, which I suggest, is to find other writers you have connected with and work together with editing each other’s pieces.
As you go back and forth, you will begin to learn from each other and become better writers. However, this can create a bit of a backlog on being able to publish regularly.
Self-Editing.
Most of us do this type of editing. Sometimes it is simply reading through the post and publishing. Other times, we use specific systems to help us work through editing.
I believe there is a happy medium, somewhere in between simple editing and a specific system. This has worked well for me in the last year or so. And it is the best way to go about editing across the board.
Here is my editing system that will help you write content online:
- Read Out Loud. The first step is to read your draft out loud. This will help you catch the glaring issues with your post. It will also help you hear how your readers might read your post.
- Edit with Software. I use two pieces of software primarily for editing. The first one is Grammarly. The second one is the Hemmingway App. These two pieces of software help first with the technical aspects of editing and second with the readability of your post.
- Read Out Loud Again. I have to be honest. Software programs don’t catch everything, and sometimes they make things worse. You must be sure to read everything out loud again, or else you might have something weird popping up in your article. Trust me. I’ve been there.
These three steps are simple but helpful in making sure that you edit your work with conviction. It will help it read better. And you will be able to learn how to become a better writer.
Final Thoughts on Edit With Conviction
The amount of editing you do is up to you. I’m not one to sit on every post for several days to edit it. I write it. Edit it. And publish it. There is no point to me in going so in-depth on something that will be read and likely disregarded by many after a few weeks.
Regarding books, I believe editing is one of the essential pieces to growing a following and building trust with consistent readers. In that situation, editing should be very focused and may take more time.
Either way, editing is essential. And it helps us become better writers.
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J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith, find productivity success, learn about investing, and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Ko-fi!
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