8 steps to self-editing your writing (meaning, words)

[sargentodiaz]

December 26th, 2013 |with a good list of things to do @ 8 steps to self-editing your writing

I guess I'm a cheapie. Instead of printing out the mss, I increase the size of the page 50% over what I had it when writing and the errors pop right up.

[ESFP]

I find that my most common mistakes are found by "word search" words like "their, they're, there" - "your, you're" - and "wonder, wander." When I read them, I replace the contraction with the meaning and see whether or not it works. Read "go to you're room..." but say aloud, "go to you are room" and see the "oops!" I think I'm pretty literate but am amazed at how often my fingers type the wrong word when trying to keep up with my brain. Spell check won't catch things like that.

[chiroptera]

Increasing font size has never occurred to me, I'll try that!

I hate spell-check with the heat of a thousand suns, though. I hate that it makes me lazy. I hate that it doesn't catch homonyms. I hate that it's really, really inaccurate. I hate that it highlights Briticisms that I tend to use.

I am a sloppy and horrid typist so I'm used to self-editing on a routine basis.

[ESFP]

I'm re-reading my book before approaching an agent. The doubling font (12 to 24) is amazing. Wish I'd known that trick on my first one. It's frustrating seeing my published book that I've found two typos in.