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How to Edit Your Own Writing

Writing is hard, but don’t overlook the difficulty — and the importance — of editing your own work before letting others see it. Here’s how.

By Harry Guinness

The secret to good writing is good editing. It’s what separates hastily written, randomly punctuated, incoherent rants from learned polemics and op-eds, and cringe-worthy fan fiction from a critically acclaimed novel. By the time this article is done, I’ll have edited and rewritten each line at least a few times. Here’s how to start editing your own work.

Understand that what you write first is a draft

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are as a writer — the first words you put on the page are a first draft. Writing is thinking: It’s rare that you’ll know exactly what you’re going to say before you say it. At the end, you need, at the very least, to go back through the draft, tidy everything up and make sure the introduction you wrote at the start matches what you eventually said.

My former writing teacher, the essayist and cartoonist Timothy Kreider, explained revision to me: “One of my favorite phrases is l’esprit d’escalier, ‘the spirit of the staircase’ — meaning that experience of realizing, too late, what the perfect thing to have said at the party, in a conversation or argument or flirtation would have been. Writing offers us one of the rare chances in life at a do-over: to get it right and say what we meant this time. To the extent writers are able to appear any smarter or wittier than readers, it’s only because they’ve cheated by taking so much time to think up what they meant to say and refining it over days or weeks or, yes, even years, until they’ve said it as clearly and elegantly as they can.”

The time you put into editing, reworking and refining turns your first draft into a second — and then into a third and, if you keep at it, eventually something great. The biggest mistake you can make as a writer is to assume that what you wrote the first time through was good enough.

Now, let’s look at how to do the actual editing.

Watch for common errors

Most writing mistakes are depressingly common; good writers just get better at catching them before they hit the page. If you’re serious about improving your writing, I recommend you read “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, a how-to guide on writing good, clear English and avoiding the most common mistakes. “ Politics and the English Language ” by George Orwell is also worth studying if you want to avoid “ugly and inaccurate” writing.

Some of the things you’ll learn to watch for (and that I have to fix all the time in my own writing) are:

Overuse of jargon and business speak . Horrible jargon like “utilize,” “endeavor” or “communicate” — instead of “use,” “try” or “chat” — creep in when people (myself included) are trying to sound smart. It’s the kind of writing that Orwell railed against in his essay. All this sort of writing does is obscure the point you want to make behind false intellectualism. As Orwell said, “Never use a long word when a short one will do.”

Clichés. Clichés are as common as mud but at least getting rid of them is low-hanging fruit. If you’re not sure whether something is a cliché, it’s better to just avoid it. Awful, right? Clichés are stale phrases that have lost their impact and novelty through overuse. At some point, “The grass is always greener on the other side” was a witty observation, but it’s a cliché now. Again, Orwell said it well: “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.” Oh, and memes very quickly become clichés — be warned.

The passive voice. In most cases, the subject of the sentence should be the person or thing taking action, not the thing being acted on. For example, “This article was written by Harry” is written in the passive voice because the subject (“this article”) is the thing being acted on. The equivalent active construction would be: “Harry wrote this article.” Prose written in the passive voice tends to have an aloofness and passivity to it, which is why it’s generally better to write an active sentence.

Rambling . When you’re not quite sure what you want to say, it’s easy to ramble around a point, phrasing it in three or four different ways and then, instead of cutting them down to a single concise sentence, slapping all four together into a clunky, unclear paragraph. A single direct sentence is almost always better than four that tease around a point.

Give your work some space

When you write something, you get very close to it. It’s almost impossible to have the distance to edit properly straight away. Instead, you need to step away and come back later with fresh eyes. The longer you can leave a draft before editing it, the better. I have some essays I go back to every few months for another pass — they’re still not done yet. For most things, though, somewhere from half an hour to two days is enough of a break that you can then edit well. Even 10 minutes will do in a pinch for things like emails.

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Self Editing For Fiction Writers: 10 Top Tips

Writing a novel is incredibly hard. Then you get to the end of your first draft and relief sets in – but it’s short-lived. The seemingly insurmountable brick wall of self editing for fiction writers looms in the near distance.

Editing your own creative writing doesn’t need to feel so scary, or so dull. With these editing exercises and tools, you can not only polish your draft into something shiny and thoughtfully structured, but even enjoy the process of self editing for fiction writers . Yep, we said it.

Lizzy Goudsmit Kay – Editorial Director at The Novelry and former senior commissioning editor at a division of Penguin Random House – has laid out her ten top tips that will unlock your beautiful second draft and make the process of self editing breezy (or at least breezier…).

Why does self editing for fiction writers induce panic?

There is something inevitably chaotic about the first draft of a new novel .

The possibilities can seem overwhelmingly (and joyously) endless. Who are these characters? Where are they going? You can experiment with tenses and voices. You can shift the sex, age or outlook of your characters between one page and the next. You can switch countries or seasons, if you choose, following your instincts and trusting the story.

There are no poor decisions. There are no set-in-stone answers. There is only the blank page and the words that feel right in that moment.

It doesn’t matter if you identify as a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’; you can be sure of very little in the first draft. Even if you craft a detailed plan before committing to a single sentence, you might discover that a character has a mind of his or her own and walks off in an unexpected direction. There was no way to know that beforehand; it’s simply part of the process.

For many, that’s the joy of the first draft: the intense, limitless creativity, that sense of bounding into the unknown.

But not for me.

Why I love self editing

I like writing; but I prefer editing. I know, I know. That sets me apart from lots of aspiring fiction writers.

But I am far more comfortable knowing who’s who and what’s what. And these things are often discovered in the second draft (or even the third, fourth, fifth, maybe fifteenth draft!).

When you polish fiction writing, you get to hold an entire story in the palm of one hand and pick at it with the other, moving sentences, characters, even entire storylines into new positions.

This is the process of self editing your own writing. You’ll be reworking and revising until something really makes sense and finally starts to shine.

When you polish fiction writing, you get to hold an entire story in the palm of one hand and pick at it with the other, moving sentences, characters, even entire storylines into new positions. You interrogate every decision that you made in the first draft and ask yourself: does this feel right? Does this feel true?

If you can do this, then you understand the beauty of the editing process.

There’s no way to be a great writer without being a great editor

Yes, there are professional editors like me who will ask you all sorts of tricky questions about plot and character, about structure and language. But it’s the writer who decides the answers and is responsible for weaving them into the story. You have to take responsibility over your own writing.

It’s up to you to make sure it all makes sense, all flows, all engages your reader and compels them to keep turning the page.

So where should you start the editing process? What comes next, after you’ve finished the first draft and are starting to think about adding some good sense and a dazzling shine to your manuscript?

My ten tips for self editing

Just as there’s no formula for writing fiction, there’s not one neat solution for editing a novel. All novels are different, as are all writers.

I have, however, picked up some great tools for an editing process that can transform a first draft.

Here are ten of my favourite tips  for self editing for fiction writers:

• Self editing for fiction writers requires ruthless cutting
• Ask yourself why we are here
• Character mapping can help you self edit
• Show, don't tell
• Tell us something we don't know
• Start your story!
• The midpoint is crucial when you’re self editing fiction
• Wordy words and more words
• A satisfying ending
• Be kind when you’re self editing as a fiction writer

1. Self editing for fiction writers requires ruthless cutting

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of self editing for fiction writers is, without a doubt, killing your darlings, and even your characters. But it’s a necessary cruelty.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but it is unlikely that every character and every idea in your first draft is a good one. That’s the nature of writing fiction; you get to explore and experiment. As a result, there are probably a few bland and wooden characters wandering around but doing very little.

We don’t need them. CUT!

There might be a storyline that felt great initially but disappears partway through and doesn’t feel worth reviving. CUT!

There might be – and there often is – a nugget that was there at the moment you decided to write this novel. It might even be what inspired the novel. But you’ve finished the initial fiction writing phase; now you have to self edit. Is it still serving a purpose? Often, we cling to these things, believing them to be the backbone of our story, when in fact the story has grown away from them. CUT!

It’s not the easiest writing advice to hear, we know. It’s challenging to look at a first draft and identify the parts worth keeping and the parts that need to go, particularly when all of that story means something to you. But it’s one of the most important parts of self editing for fiction writers.

My advice is that if you’re in doubt about an element, it probably needs to go.

Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings. — Stephen King , On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

2. Ask yourself why we are here

After you’ve identified everything that no longer deserves to be in your manuscript, it’s time to start thinking about the things that do deserve to be there. See: self editing for fiction writers isn’t all ruthless removal!

Assuming there are characters (there are, right?), then the next most important thing to consider is motivation. There are few things worse than characters who meander through a story. Your key players need agency, a goal to work towards. Your secondary characters need purpose, a way to contribute to another character arc .

Why are they there? What are they doing? What do they want?

If they’ve survived your initial cull, then being able to answer these questions is a key part of self editing for fiction writers. And it applies to every single one of your characters, from those who appear in all of your chapters to those who appear in just a paragraph.

If you can’t answer these questions satisfactorily, you have two choices from these editing techniques:

3. Character mapping can help you self edit

There are different ways to make your characters feel multi-dimensional and authentic.

We have plenty of advice on character development , as well as character development exercises. And if you really want the secret sauce, we teach writers lots of them in our creative writing courses .

But – in my opinion – the easiest way is to take them out with you for a few days, a little like a pet. Imagine your characters in every situation.

If you have a few key characters, take them each out for a day. Do you know how they behave in different situations?

What are they like at the supermarket? Do they write a list in advance or wing it when they get there? Do they use the self-check-out or prefer human interaction? Do they remember to bring their own bags or pay for another plastic one? How do they feel about buses? Would they prefer to walk? What if it’s raining?

If you have a few key characters, take them each out for a day. Do you know how they behave in different situations? Can you pinpoint the moment where they finally snap? What’s their coffee order? Did they pack a lunch? Perhaps take a couple of them out simultaneously to see how they fit together. Where are the alliances? Where are the tensions?

If you can answer all of these questions easily, then you likely know your characters well enough to draw them on a page and make them feel believable. And if that’s not a mark of successful self editing for fiction writers, I don’t know what is!

4. Show don’t tell

This is the most common – and probably most frustrating – feedback to receive.

What does it mean? Why does it matter?

If you were to tell me that your protagonist went on an amazing adventure to a school where the teachers were witches and wizards who taught magic and that your character felt more at home there than they’d ever felt anywhere else, I’d say: SHOW ME!

I want to see them arriving at this school. I want to see (and therefore understand) what makes it so special. I really want to see them settling in and becoming their best self. I don’t need you tell me what’s going on; I need you to become an artist with a canvas, drawing these scenes.

This is often a particular challenge for many writers aiming to create more literary fiction. But they, too, need to follow these same processes to create a really engaging story, no matter what other techniques they employ.

This is a crucial part of self editing, because it makes the difference between witnessing something from a distance and being in the middle of it. It is the difference between readers understanding your story and genuinely feeling it.

And we want the latter. We want them to laugh and cry, to be there on those pages with us.

5. Tell us something we don’t know

We know that the sky is blue. We know that the grass is green. We don’t need to be told these things and, when we are, they tend not to have much impact.

But if you show your reader that the sky is orange and describe something majestic happening at sunrise, that could feel powerful and intriguing. And if you tell them that the grass is straw-like and yellow, they can see a story instantly: the long hot spell that led to that dry grass.

How can you push this further in your own work? When, for example, might the grass be blue? I immediately imagine a child spilling paint, but I know you’ll have many more ideas!

Challenge yourself to tell your reader something new. Even better, tell them something old in a new way. There are so many blue skies. Take us somewhere else.

Challenge yourself to tell your reader something new. Even better, tell them something old in a new way.

6. Start your story!

I am an unashamedly lazy reader.

I am impatient and I will become easily frustrated if there’s nothing near the beginning of your novel for me to hold onto. I’m willing and waiting, my hands outstretched, but you need to give the end of a piece of string, one that will be woven through the centre of your story.

It could be an interesting and unexpected character, someone that makes me ask questions. It could be exquisite prose or an entirely new setting.

But, more often than not, it’s a plot-thread. As you self edit your fiction writing, I would encourage you to think carefully about where your story actually starts . It should be on the first page and, if not, then within the first few – especially if you’re aiming at mainstream publishing. Almost every editorial department will urge you to set that thread down early so that you can gently pull your reader through the hundreds of pages that follow.

7. The midpoint is crucial when you’re self editing fiction

It’s important for your novel to take a reader from A to B. But the unfortunate reality is that a very good sentence can do that too.

You have to keep readers following that thread, so two letters of the alphabet probably aren’t enough. You’re going to need to go from A to Z, via every other letter. And that means that at some point – near the middle – you’re going to hit M and the very important midpoint to your novel . We have plenty of writing advice on this crucial middle section here .

As you’re editing your first draft, make sure there’s a moment in the middle that serves as the point of no return: a realisation, an argument, a death.

But essentially, this is where everything changes. There’s no going back. There is absolutely no way for your characters to return to A.

As you’re editing your first draft, make sure there’s a moment in the middle that serves as the point of no return: a realisation, an argument, a death. It doesn’t much matter what you choose, but it has to switch things up for your characters and for your readers too. This is often what can turn promising manuscripts into publishing-ready stories.

8. Wordy words and more words

If you had a superpower, you’d want to use it as often as possible, right?

You’ve read the books. You’ve seen the films. You can’t use magic all day every day without consequences. Writing is your superpower. Words are your magic . But don’t get carried away. Use only the words that you absolutely need. Be selective. Be picky. Get rid of everything that isn’t absolutely essential. It’s an emotional part of self editing fiction, but you (and your readers) can’t do without it.

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads. — Dr. Seuss

9. A satisfying ending

You can end on a high. You can end on a low. But the most important thing is to ensure that your ending is in some way satisfying.

It can be dark or unexpected or devastating, but it needs to make sense. You want your reader to reach the final pages of your novel and think Oh! Of course!

There are many ways to do this. Perhaps the characters finally get together, after pages of will-they-won’t-they.

Perhaps it’s a shocking twist in a crime novel that perfectly explains the few remaining loose threads.

Perhaps – and this is often my favourite – it’s your character finally finding Z, the thing they’ve been searching for since A, the beginning of the novel. But by then, things B to Y have revealed it wasn’t what they wanted after all. Heartbreaking!

10. Be kind when you’re self editing as a fiction writer

There is no easy way to edit a book . It requires you to read your story – something you’ve worked so hard on – and be the critical voice that finds the faults.

So don’t forget to be kind to yourself too through the arduous process of self editing fiction. Congratulate yourself on each and every brilliant sentence; they’re definitely there, so make sure to see them. Acknowledge the characters that leap off the page and feel fully formed already. Recognise that self editing feels tough because it is tough.

Eventually you’ll be ready to share your own work with a writing group, and even a professional editor who knows how to turn promising manuscripts into published novels. But for now, it’s just you and your own work.

There will likely be several rounds of edits – at least. Maybe many more. And you’re going to have to be kind to yourself to get through them. You don’t have to edit every day. You can do big smiley faces in the margins. You can skip the tricky bits and come back to them later. You are the one in charge, here, so take your time and settle in for the ride.

Happy editing!

Lizzy and the Editorial Team at The Novelry

The Big Edit (Included in The Novel Development Course)

You want a straightforward guide to formatting. It’s here!

You want to meet your team of professional editors? We say hello and welcome in the very first lesson.

You want the course to offer some contemporary examples of structure, sentences, openers, and brilliant editing techniques. We’ve packed these lessons with all sorts of brilliant books you know: from Harry Potter and A Game of Thrones to The Couple Next Door and Girl, Woman, Other .

You want tips and tricks from inside the editing trade? DONE! Check out our advanced  technique for stand-out prose to open your book with a bang – Lucid Compression ®

You want to write a stand-out synopsis ? We’ll make it a thing of sleek beauty and simple to write.

You want to write a brilliant pitch letter? There are two lessons to guide you.

Plus, find out more about what literary agents and the major publishing houses really, really want!

We’ll guide you step by step with killer logic through the wonderful process of drilling down from structural development and a narrative summary, to copy editing through to line-by-line style, the same way the major publishing houses work so that you become your own best editor for a lifetime of happy writing. Once you’ve mastered the thought process you’ll find it makes writing easier in future, and you don’t make those same mistakes next time you start a novel.

Our literary agencies

Did you know The Novelry is the online creative writing course recommended by more literary agencies than any other? Take a look at our list of trusted leading literary agencies in the USA and the UK keen to see our graduates’ brilliant novels.

Get editing, folks! See you on the sunny side of a pitch-perfect manuscript.

Lizzy Goudsmit Kay

Before joining The Novelry, Lizzy Goudsmit Kay was a Senior Commissioning Editor at Transworld Publishers, a division of Penguin Random House, home to general fiction authors including Kate Atkinson, Dan Brown, Bill Bryson, Lee Child, Richard Dawkins, Paula Hawkins, Rachel Joyce and Sophie Kinsella.

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11 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing – Checklist Included

| Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond

Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.

Are you a student or a writer looking to finish some top-notch work but can’t afford to hire an editor? Even if you could, practicing self-editing techniques will help you become a better writer.

I use most of these techniques to help polish my own writing before sending it to my editor, which brings down the costs. Below are 11 tips for editing your writing to hone your craft and a cheat sheet you can download.

How Hard is it to Self Edit?

A lot of writers practice self-editing because it helps them master their craft. Avoiding passive voice or filler words are just two examples of writing editing techniques you can learn. The following checklist contains guidelines and examples that will show you how to self-edit your work.

The Importance of Self-Editing

Developing your language skills through the process of self-editing is beneficial. It is less likely that you will develop your writing skills to the highest possible level if you simply rely on other people to point out and correct your errors in writing.

You are laying the groundwork for future growth and development in yourself by cultivating the ability to edit and enhance your writing and focusing on consistently improving your writing talents.

When you are in a situation where you cannot rely on others for immediate assistance, self-editing can help you achieve success.

Take your grammar skills to the next level

Take Our Copyediting Course

Do You Still Need an Editor If You Self-Edit?

The answer is not straightforward and depends on various factors. Sometimes, you might still need an editor even if you self-edit. In fact, I highly recommend it, even if you have extensive editing skills. It’s just too easy to make careless errors and miss it with your own eye because you’ve written the piece and have likely read it over a dozen times already.

For writing meant to be published and made available in academic or legal contexts, for technical writing and pieces of text meant for selling, you should turn to a professional editor. For example, I would never publish a book without having an editor look it over first, no matter how confident I am in my self-editing skills.

How to Edit Your Own Creative Writing

These tips work well for me, so hopefully, you can utilize them with your own work.

Read Your Writing in a New Format

Convert your writing to a new format to gain clarity and a better overview of your work. If it was typed, you should print it out. Alternately, you may convert your Word document to PDF format, or you could alter the color, font, and size of your text. These strategies will give you a more critical eye and help you see your work as if an “outsider” read it.

Take a Break

Attempting to do everything at once is a common mistake amongst novice writers. Give your writing time to rest, whether a few hours or the whole night or even a few days. Creating a psychological divide between yourself and your work requires physical and symbolic separation. After some time away from it, you will be more likely to notice odd sentences and apparent errors in them.

Read It Out Loud

When you hear your writing aloud, you can catch things like clumsy wording, repetition, and other issues that detract from the flow and clarity of your work. A writer may not know their writing has poor sentence structure or that their main argument is unclear until they hear it read aloud.

Take advantage of text-to-speech software if it’s too much to read. There’s actually a free option built-in to Microsoft Word.

Remove Uncertain Language

A good writer masters their topic, leaving no room for uncertain phrases. If you want to communicate effectively, you should avoid using statements that sound indecisive. When you use terms like “seems to be” or “might be a reason for,” you come across as undecided, which makes your message appear less convincing to the listener.

Avoid Repetitive Phrases

This is a common problem with writers trying to meet the word count of those looking to make a point in their text. You should avoid repeatedly using the same words or phrases to make your argument since your audience will notice if you do this. Use a word frequency counter to identify repeated words, then look through a thesaurus for potential replacements.

Eliminate Filler Words

If your text is comprehensive while eliminating some of the words, those are known as “fillers.” A word processor can help with that, and it will help you find redundant words. Most of the time, words like “it” or “there” don’t belong in your writing.

Remove Weak “to Be” Verbs

New writers use variations of the verb “to be” quite often, thus weakening the following words (hence the concept of “weak verb”). For example, instead of saying, “They were not fans of the band,” you could say, “They disliked the band.”

Remove Weak Adjectives

Weak adjectives decrease your writing quality. “Very” and “really” are two perfect examples. Instead, you can use more powerful adjectives to replace them. You can use fewer words and still give your text an impact.

Use Grammarly to Find Mistakes

Grammarly is a must-have tool for both writers and editors, and I always sing its praises . The Grammarly proofreading tool checks for spelling errors, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and more than 250 advanced rules to uncover the mistakes such as double negatives, passive voice, and hanging modifiers. 

After some practice with Grammarly, you’ll start to recognize patterns of error that crop up frequently in your writing. Bad writing habits like run-on sentences and inconsistencies are easy to fall back on during the writing process. 

Use the Chicago Manual of Style Online

The online version is available to writers at any time. Subscribing for a year may be worthwhile if writing is your profession. Priced at $41 at the moment, it’s an investment in your future as a writer because of its comprehensive guidance on writing mechanics.

Separate Your Editing Tasks

If the idea of editing your work fills you with dread, try breaking the process down into several phases that are more doable for you. During the initial pass, you should ensure that your ideas flow logically. When you go back through it, pay attention to sentence structure.

Writing Editing Checklist

Keep these points and editing tips on hand and refer to them when self-editing. It’s one I have next to me whenever I’m editing, and it’s helped me avoid some big mistakes and improve the flow of the story. I’ll include a handy bullet list below so you can download it. 

Spelling and Grammar

Software or a document editor with built-in spelling and grammar error detection is the best course of action. Using Grammarly, the Word spell checker or similar aids will underline your misspelled words and grammar mistakes and make correcting easier in any piece of writing. Make sure to check your punctuation too.

Unnecessary Words

Your sentences get cluttered with filler words that contribute no additional sense. As is the case with excessive use of passive voice, they lessen the impact of your work with weak sentences and make reading it more difficult for your audience.

There is something wrong with how you write your email if the recipient needs to finish it by consulting a thesaurus. You’re making it too difficult for them if they become bogged down in lengthy sentences and cannot take a breath in between them.

It’s time to condense that excessively complex and pompous locution into something more digestible. Stick to the basics.

That doesn’t imply you have to write dully, though. There is room for imaginative expression. There is room to act in a lighthearted manner. However, you shouldn’t make it solely about the “art” of writing. Not the place to say something like that in email marketing.

Your primary goal should be to assist your audience in realizing their full potential. The most effective method is communicating as clearly and straightforwardly as possible.

Fancy Words

Fancy words can make writing more beautiful, but using them doesn’t mean you wrote a good piece. They don’t belong in just any type of written content. When reviewing gardening tools, using words like “preposterous” is overkill.

Passive Voice

The subject of a sentence acts upon it in active voice writing. Verbs, the workhorses of any well-formed sentence, denote this action. Although the use of passive voice is not strictly forbidden, it is recommended that you maintain an active tone in your writing to encourage your readers to continue reading.

If you want to ditch passive voice, keep in mind one popular detective-movie question: who dunnit? Who manufactured the product? Who left the door open? Who edited the manuscript?

It is easy for editors to spot passive voice, but it can be challenging for writers to see it in their work. Your writing will be more effective once you have mastered the skills necessary to recognize and correct these occurrences.

Repeated Words

Repeating words over and over again showcases one thing: you need a better command of English vocabulary. A thesaurus is integral to making the text sound good to the reader. Synonyms are essential in this situation.

I’m guilty of this. My editor used to do an entire pass-through just for my repeated words and fire the manuscript back to me before she continued editing. Now I do a search-and-replace in Word for my ‘vices’ before sending it out. 

Long Sentences

Any lengthy phrases can be written using suitable grammar. However, because lengthy sentences frequently include several concepts, it is simple for the reader to become distracted by them. If you end up with long comma sentences, try to give each idea a sentence of its own.

Phrases You Can Replace in One or Two Words

Using too many words or phrases to create a simple idea is called circumlocution. In your writing, you should never resort to using circumlocutions if at all possible. The only instance you can break this rule is if you believe that your audience is incapable of dealing with a confrontation with the matter at issue and that you need to sugar coat it with a euphemism.

Here’s how to avoid it:

• Before beginning a conversation, give yourself some time to reflect.
• Before you say something or after you’ve said something, think of ways to rephrase it with more straightforward language.
• Studying new vocabulary and phrasing can enable you to express yourself more clearly and concisely.

Sentences and Paragraphs Starting the Same Way

Anaphora is a writing technique that repeats a term in consecutive verses, sentences, or phrases to get a poetic effect. Google doesn’t like that. You should avoid this, especially if you are a web content writer.

A paragraph that begins with numerous successive sentences with the same word will not be a pleasant reading experience. Visitors to your website would become frustrated and click away.

Therefore, even though three identical sentence beginnings might not appear relevant to you in terms of SEO, it’s essential to remember that the essence of an all-encompassing SEO strategy is providing your readers with the most awesome content possible.

Sentence Structure Variety

Your writing may appear to be one extensive list if it has an excessive number of short sentences while becoming confusing if it contains a disproportionate number of long sentences. It is challenging to establish a balance while also varying the sentence forms you use, but the work is well worth it.

Always look for a pattern of successive sentences that begin in the same manner; this can have the unintentional consequence of making you sound like you are going on and on.

Consistent Verb Tense

Decide whether you should write in the past or the present tense for your piece, as well as the perspective from which you will be telling it. Many of your readers will become confused if you flip between tenses and points of view in a way that is not intentional.

Of course, some narratives are intentionally written from different timeframes or points of view. If this is the case with your story, you must be sure you use the appropriate one at the right time.

Consistent Tone

Ensure that your paper’s first sentence sets the mood you desire. The tones you select will change depending on the topic at hand. However, refrain from switching tones in the middle of a composition. Read your text carefully when you finish. Look for tone shifts and fades and correct them.

“Very” and “Really”

These two words will make your writing look weaker with wishy-washy sentences. When you overuse “very” and “really,” the writing becomes dull, impersonal, and filled with unnecessary words.

To avoid using very + adjective, consider a single-word replacement. For instance, turn “very cold” into “freezing.”

“Really” is an adverb that can modify not just adjectives but also verbs. It can also modify adverbs. Therefore, when it is used as an intensifier for an activity, you should alternate using it with a different word, such as truly, strongly, or greatly, while speaking about the action.

A phrase that was once original but has been so overused that its original meaning has been lost is an example of a cliché.

Give some thought to the deeper meaning of the cliché. Use a dictionary to find words or phrases similar to the one you want to replace but not the same. Clichés are mostly unneeded filler in writing; you can eliminate them from your text.

Parallelism

When it comes to good grammar, it’s less about coming together and more about striking a balance. The concept of parallelism in grammar refers to two or more phrases or clauses within a sentence that share the same structure as the rest of the sentence’s grammar.

Your writing has the potential to become more powerful, fascinating, and understandable by utilizing parallelism.

Connecting ideas that are related to one another and highlighting the connections between them is helpful. When a grammatical pattern has been established, the reader does not need to exert as much effort to comprehend your meaning and the concepts you are attempting to convey.

You are aware that some believe that using jargon will make their work appear more intelligent, but you know otherwise. Good writing should not leave the reader feeling confused because of awkward phrases. If a reader needs to use a dictionary to complete a phrase, there is space for growth in the writing you provide.

To ensure that your idea is understood, it is important to utilize language familiar to the audience. There are thousands upon thousands of words in the English language. A jargon-filled expression can almost always be replaced with something simpler and more widely used if you look it up in a thesaurus.

One way to utilize language that “protects” your statements is through the practice of hedging. Your arguments have a better chance of being taken seriously if you use language that displays an appropriate amount of caution. It also illustrates the level of certainty you have with the evidence stated.

To make your text look nice, you must edit your formatting. This includes consistent fonts and sizes for headings, subheadings, and paragraphs. Make sure you use identical bullet points across the entire piece. Consider industry-standard typographical conventions throughout your document (including bold and italic text).

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of good writers with potential out there who can’t avoid writing in passive voice or tell the difference between “its” and “it’s.” Editors that spot these mistakes are less likely to want to work with them.

The editing process is essential on many levels, but it takes a long time to master. Luckily, our checklist will guide you through the process and remind you what to look for when finishing a written piece. Also see our post on the best books for proofreading .

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Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

How to Edit Your Writing: An Effective 7-Step Process

Published August 22, 2017 | Last Updated April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 34 Comments

A reader recently asked, “What is your best advice for editing?”

I was about to type up an email in reply, but then I realized that I’ve never shared my editing process here on the blog. Since this might be of interest to all of you, today I’m sharing the seven steps I follow to edit my work along with the editing advice I’ve gleaned from various famous authors over the years.

This post focuses on editing nonfiction, but I follow a similar process for editing both my fiction and nonfiction writing. You can adapt this advice according to your own writing projects. Read on for my editing tips.

When I have an idea for a new article, I spend time jotting down notes, researching (if necessary), and thinking of different ways I can approach the topic. Before I begin writing the piece, I gather all of those notes together and construct an outline. (If I were writing fiction, this would be the plotting stage.)

You wouldn’t begin building a house without construction plans that carefully measure the foundation, how big each room will be, and other precise details. Otherwise, you might end up with a house that looks like this . (Bonus points if you know what movie that’s from.)

Similarly, I find when I don’t outline my piece beforehand, the first draft ends up a tangled mess. That’s because I’m developing my ideas as I go. If I outline first, the piece usually ends up not requiring as many revisions.

Here are two tips for outlining your piece:

First, summarize what your article is about in one sentence. This sentence should present the main idea or argument of your piece. You might end up including this sentence in the introduction of your piece, but even if you don’t, it will be a helpful guide as you write. If a paragraph doesn’t relate back to that original theme or support your argument, delete it.

After you’ve written down your one-sentence summary, you can plan out the main points of each section of your piece. Organize your thoughts into a logical and chronological structure.

See my guide here on how to structure compelling blog posts.

2. Write Your First Draft

The next step, of course, is to actually write your piece. John Steinbeck advised ,

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

I try hard to follow Steinbeck’s advice, but I am guilty of rewriting whole paragraphs as I work on my first draft. So don’t beat yourself up too much over this. Every writer has their own unique way of working. William Zinsser observes in his book On Writing Well (Amazon affiliate link),

Some people write their first draft in one long burst and then revise; others can’t write the second paragraph until they have fiddled endlessly with the first.

If a paragraph is giving you trouble, however, remember that you can always skip it and come back to it after you have gotten the rest of the piece down on paper. You might end up discovering that the paragraph wasn’t necessary after all.

3. Substantive Edit

A substantive edit (also known as a developmental edit) means analyzing the structure and flow of your piece.

Once I’ve finished the first draft, I step back from it and try to examine it as if I were the reader. I highly recommend reading your piece out loud at this point.

Ask yourself these questions as you read:

• Do the paragraphs flow logically and chronologically?
• If not, do you need to rearrange them or rewrite them?
• Do you have smooth transitions between each paragraph and from one idea to the next?
• Is there anything you need to explain in more depth?
• Are there any parts of the piece that need more context?
• Any sentences or sections that are repetitious?
• Any sentences that are vague and could be enriched with more detailed examples?

Most importantly, examine whether every paragraph relates back to that initial one-sentence summary you wrote during the outlining process. As Marion Roach observes in her book The Memoir Project (Amazon affiliate link),

While editing, check back with that original pitch and see if you’ve done what you promised to do. What did you set out to illustrate? Have you fulfilled your obligations?

Maybe the direction of your piece has changed or evolved as you wrote the first draft. In that case, you might need to delete whole paragraphs, no matter how beautifully you’ve written them. Kurt Vonnegut advises ,

Your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.

4. Have Someone Read Your Piece

Another set of eyes is always helpful at this stage of the editing process. You want to make sure that your piece is easy to read, that there is a logical flow within your paragraphs, and that you’ve effectively communicated your message to your readers.

Usually, I’ll ask my dad to read my nonfiction pieces. He’s frank in his criticism, and he’ll tell me if there are vague paragraphs, confusing sentences, or others that wander without getting to a point.

For my fiction pieces, I’ll turn to my brother, Michael, or my fellow fiction writing friends. Since they write fiction too, they can tell me if one of my scenes isn’t working or point out if I’m guilty of info dumping.

Another benefit of having someone read your piece is that they can prevent you from falling into the trap of perfectionism and over-editing .

While you shouldn’t be concerned with editing grammar at this point, I do recommend running your piece through a grammar and spelling checker to catch any typos or other errors ( Grammarly is helpful for this). This is just a way to ensure that grammar errors don’t distract your volunteer editor.

If you don’t have a friend who can read your piece and give you feedback, I recommend putting your piece aside for at least a day. When you read a piece after a day has passed, you are usually able to examine it more objectively. This is a tip I learned from Neil Gaiman,

The best advice I can give on this is, once it’s done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. When you’re ready, pick it up and read it, as if you’ve never read it before. If there are things you aren’t satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that’s revision.

5. Edit for Grammar and Style

At this point, I’ve probably rewritten the piece several times. Now it’s time to evaluate the style of the piece, correct grammar and spelling errors, and strengthen the sentences and paragraphs.

Here are several things to look for:

• Are there any long-winded sentences that you can shorten or divide into two sentences? Any long paragraphs that you can separate into multiple paragraphs?
• Do you have any passive sentences? See here for how to spot passive voice.
• Are you peppering your writing with cliched phrases? Use the cliche finder .
• Any spelling or capitalization errors? Misplaced modifiers? Misuse of commas? Other punctuation errors?
• If you’re writing a blog post, are there places where you can use contractions to make your writing sound more conversational?
• Have you eliminated unnecessary adverbs? Are there any difficult words that you could replace with more commonly known ones?

William Zinsser notes,

…The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what–these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.

You can use an application like Grammarly to help with this process, but it might not catch all errors. The Hemingway Editor is another useful tool to determine if you have sentences that are difficult to read (copy and paste your text onto the homepage to use the free version of the app).

And, remember, that you can always brush up on your grammar knowledge by reading a book like  The Elements of Style . I’m planning an upcoming post sharing several of my favorite books that teach how to write well.

6. Have Someone Read Your Piece Again

Now I’m nearly ready to publish the piece. Since I’ve been reading the same lines over and over, my brain is usually exhausted at this point and will be less likely to notice typos. I try to find someone who will read my piece again to spot anything I might have missed.

Hopefully, your volunteer editor from step #4 is a really, really good friend and doesn’t mind reading your piece a second time. Or you might want to find a different person for a new set of eyes and fresh perspective. If you can’t find anyone to read your piece, however, I recommend printing it out and slowly reading it aloud during step #7.

7. Proofread One Last Time

The finish line is finally within sight. It’s time to give the piece one last read through.

If you’re working on a blog post, check for these things:

• Do all of your links work and open in new windows? Have you linked to other articles on your site?
• Do you need to tweak your headline to make it stronger? Try out the headline analyzer here .
• Have you properly attributed all of your quotes?
• If you’re using photos, have you included alt tags?
• Are your subheadings consistently capitalized?
• Have you previewed your post to make sure there are no formatting errors?
• Do you have a call to action at the end of the post that asks readers to comment, share, and subscribe?

If you have a WordPress blog, I highly recommend installing the Yoast SEO plugin as it will remind you to do many of these things. It also evaluates your post’s readability and points out passive sentences.

And, hurrah, we’re finished and ready to publish the piece!

The Takeaway (and a free PDF guide!)

Getting your words down on paper is only half the struggle of creating a story or a blog post. Imagine that writing is like planting a garden. Editing means pruning your bushes and pulling up the weeds in your flower beds. You can’t fully appreciate the beauty of the garden until after you’ve done lots of hard work.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bernard Malamud once said,

…First drafts are for learning what one’s fiction [or nonfiction] wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to re-form it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

Keep in mind, though, that you shouldn’t obsess so much over the editing process that it prevents you from sharing your writing with the world. See my post here about the dangers of over-editing.

Of course, some pieces of writing might take longer to edit depending on the subject matter you are tackling. But by following an editing process like this one you will become more efficient at editing your work.

I’ve turned this blog post into a PDF guide that you can follow the next time you need to edit a writing project. You can get it by subscribing to the email newsletter .

What’s your editing process like? Let me know in the comments.

And if you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. You can use the picture below to share it on Pinterest.

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Georgia Miller says

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October 11, 2017 at 3:48 pm

This post is so helpful. Thank you! I second getting others to read your work more than once – especially someone that is the potential audience.

Kate Findley says

August 31, 2017 at 12:52 am

I definitely agree with having someone else read your piece. I’m an OCD editor but when it comes to subjective things like flow, clarity, and word choice, it really is good to get a second opinion. I’m lucky that my boyfriend is also a writer so we often edit each other’s pieces!

Nicole Bianchi says

September 2, 2017 at 6:30 pm

Hi, Kate! 🙂 Thanks for commenting. Ha, yes, I’m like you — very nitpicky when it comes to editing so usually I catch any grammatical errors before my volunteer editor reads the piece. That’s great that your boyfriend is a writer too!

Jessica Kromer says

August 30, 2017 at 1:50 pm

Thanks so much for sharing such inspiring and helpful content for writers and bloggers. I nominated you for the Blogger Recognition Award, and if you choose to accept you can see the details here: http://www.purposefulwriter.com/accepting-blogger-recognition-award-15-blog-nominees/ <3

August 30, 2017 at 7:05 pm

Hi, Jessica! Thanks so much. That’s so sweet of you. 🙂 I’m so happy to hear you find my blog inspiring and helpful. Thanks for the nomination!

Julie Borm says

August 28, 2017 at 11:16 am

Great post! I agree that setting a piece aside for a day can do wonders. Also, nothing replaces the value of a second eye, whether it be a friend, co-worker or family member!

August 28, 2017 at 12:44 pm

Hi, Julie! 🙂 Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, it’s amazing how effective it is to just take a little break from your first draft. When you come back, you really are able to evaluate the piece more objectively.

joleisa says

August 28, 2017 at 10:48 am

Quite a ueful piece and I’m sure folk will find the PDF useful. Writing is a lovely process, isn’t it?

August 28, 2017 at 11:02 am

Thank you, Joleisa! 🙂 Yes, it certainly is a lovely process.

Lisa Wilton says

August 27, 2017 at 5:39 am

Love this post! This is more or less the method I try to use although I add in something more before the substantive edit (in fiction anyway). I separate out the different character arcs and see if they flow well and make sense within the plot. This also helps when I am looking for any plot holes.

Love your blog too and nice to meet you! 😀

August 27, 2017 at 7:59 pm

Thank you so much, Lisa! 🙂 That’s a great tip. I’m going to add that to my fiction writing process. Nice to meet you too!

michelle monet says

August 26, 2017 at 1:25 pm

Great useful advice Nicole. I will add it to my editing tools. I am honestly into the ‘first shitty draft’ stages which I am enjoying. Soon I know I will have to buckle down and get serious about editing eh?haha I’m glad I have a few good editor friends willing to help me.

August 26, 2017 at 2:12 pm

Hi, Michelle! Thanks so much for your comment. I’m glad you found the post helpful. 🙂 All the best with editing your first draft!! Good editor friends are definitely invaluable.

Lateefah says

August 25, 2017 at 7:31 pm

Great article!! I must say this is a refresher to my usual techniques which I think is amazing. Thanks much!

August 26, 2017 at 2:05 pm

Thank you, Lateefah! 🙂 Glad to hear that.

Krystal Mercer McLellan says

August 25, 2017 at 11:08 am

Lovely post! I tend to want to edit as I am writing my first draft, and it really hinders my progress. I try to suppress that urge, but old habits die hard. Also, I love the advice to try and strip a sentence to its cleanest form. My 8th grade English teacher once asked me to define “mere”, and that’s when I first understood there are such things as meaningless filler words. Thanks for writing Nicole!

August 25, 2017 at 12:51 pm

Thank you for your comment, Krystal! Yes, I too have to restrain myself from editing while writing that first draft. I often find it’s best to just jump to the next paragraph when I catch myself rewriting a passage over and over. Thanks for sharing that story about your English teacher. I had a professor in college who would always write “more specificity please” next to paragraphs in our essays. It really forced me and my fellow students to dig deeper and eliminate all of the vague phrases and meaningless words.

August 25, 2017 at 1:37 pm

Thank goodness for teachers. Where would we be today without them?? I’ll try skipping ahead next time I find myself struggling with the urge to edit as I go. Also bookmarking this post for future reference. Thanks so much again!

August 26, 2017 at 2:08 pm

Definitely agree about teachers. 😉 And, yes, I found skipping ahead helps a lot. I often don’t work on my paragraphs in chronological order. For example, I’ll jump to the body paragraphs before finishing up the introduction.

Colleen Golafshan says

August 24, 2017 at 10:55 pm

Thanks, Nicole! I’ve added this post to my editing resources! 🙂

August 25, 2017 at 10:17 am

So happy to hear you found it helpful, Colleen! 🙂

John DiCarlo says

August 24, 2017 at 10:29 pm

So much value in this post! Many thanks Nicole. And each of your quotes manages to offer something extra. Your post is the first thing I have read this morning (I am writing this from Thailand), and WOW has it given me a lift! I am currently rewriting a pivotal scene in a short novel I am revising. One of the things I love most about the editing process is that sidden epiphany when you realize what a lazy so-and-so you were when drafting the original. Also puts me in mind of an interview with Orson Welles I saw as a boy. When asked where he was happiest, he replied without hesitation, “The cutting room.” Now I understand it! Sorry to ramble on, but your post really i spired me. Please keep it up. And have a great day!

August 25, 2017 at 10:22 am

Thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to comment, John! I am so glad to hear you found the post helpful and inspiring. Love that quote from Orson Welles. Thanks for sharing. I was reading William Zinsser’s book “On Writing Well” while writing this blog post (that’s why several quotes by him slipped in here), and I think you would enjoy it if you haven’t read it already. It really makes you get excited about the editing process.

Cynthia Pereira says

August 23, 2017 at 3:05 am

Hi Nicole, not sure if you got my DM a few days ago on Instagram. I’m visiting NY soon, let me know if you’d like to meet up. Cynthia.❤️

August 23, 2017 at 2:31 pm

Hi, Cynthia! Thanks for letting me know. I took a little break from Instagram to write this post & work on several other writing projects. 🙂 I’ll check Instagram tonight for your message.

[…] 📝 7-Step Editing Checklist: https://nicolebianchi.com/edit-writing […]

[…] out my post here for more editing tips. Of course, it’s important not to edit so ruthlessly that you strip your […]

[…] I shared my editing process in my blog post here. […]

[…] Editing your own work can be intimidating. Where do you start? In our last post we began sharing some excerpts of Nicole Bianchi’s post, How to Edit Your Writing: An Effective 7-Step Process. […]

[…] Where do you start? This month we’ll be sharing some excerpts of Nicole Bianchi’s post, How to Edit Your Writing: An Effective 7-Step Process. Hopefully her logical process will demystify the editing task and give you a practical way […]

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Want to learn more about revising and editing? Check out our self-paced class  The Successful Novel , which gives you the tools to write, revise, and publish the novel waiting to be written inside you. 

Although the terms revising and editing are often used interchangeably, stylish writers know the difference between revising and editing. When it’s time to shape a first draft into a polished, publishable piece of writing, knowing how to both revise and edit your work is essential.

So, what is revising vs editing? Revising refers to global changes in the text—significant amendments to the work’s structure, intent, themes, content, organization, etc. These are, in other words, macro-level considerations. Editing, by contrast, focuses on changes at the word, sentence, and paragraph level.

These two concepts require different skills and attentions, but both are necessary to create a finished piece of writing. So, let’s dive deeper into revising vs editing, including a revising and editing checklist you can use for any passage of poetry or prose.

First, let’s dive a little deeper into these two essential skills. What is the difference between revising and editing?

Note: the revising and editing resources in this article are geared towards fiction writers. Nonetheless, much of this advice also applies to essayists and nonfiction writers, too.

Revising and Editing: Contents

• The focus of revision
• The focus of editing

Revising Vs Editing: Venn Diagram

• Revision Strategies
• Editing Strategies
• Strategies for Revising and Editing

Revising and Editing Checklist

What is the difference between revising and editing.

Revising and editing are different types of changes you can make to a text. “Revising” is concerned with macro-level considerations: the ideas of a text, and how they are organized and structured as a whole. “Editing,” by contrast, concerns itself with micro-level stylistic considerations, the words and sentences that get those macro-level ideas across.

Revising is concerned with the ideas and structure of the text as a whole; editing is concerned with stylistic considerations, like word choice and sentence structure. 

This revising vs editing chart outlines the different considerations for each concept:

Let’s go a bit deeper into these revising and editing concepts.

Revision strategies focus on:

The text as a whole. If revision focuses on the macro-level concerns for the text, then revision strategies for writing require the writer to think about what the text is accomplishing.

In large part, this means thinking about themes, ideas, arguments, structures, and, if the text is fiction, the elements of fiction themselves. You might also consider how the text is influenced by other writers and media, or what philosophies are operating within the text.

Here are some questions to ask when revising your work:

• Does the writing begin at the beginning?
• Are the ideas logically sequenced?
• How are different ideas juxtaposed? How does their juxtaposition alter the message of the text?
• What messages are present in the text?
• How do the characters of the text represent different ideas and messages?
• What do the different settings of the story represent? How does the setting impact the decisions that characters make?
• What core conflicts shape the plot?
• Who is the narrator? How does their point of view impact the story being told?
• What attitude do I take towards the various themes and ideas? Is that attitude present?
• Does the writing use scenes to showcase important moments, and summaries to glide over less important passages of time?
• What atmosphere(s) are in the text? Does the story’s mood complement the story itself?
• Does the story have a clearly defined climax? What questions does (and doesn’t) the climax resolve?
• What transformation occurs in the story? How are the characters at the end different than at the beginning?
• Does the writing end at the ending? Is the ending a closed door, or (preferably) an open one?

Editing strategies focus on:

The words and sentences. In contrast to revision strategies, editing strategies ask the writer to examine how the text is accomplishing macro-level concerns.

This means getting into the weeds with language. Small decisions, like the use of a synonym or the arrangement of certain sounds, stack up to create an enjoyable story. Moreover, good writing at the sentence level makes it easier to produce good writing at the global level.

Here are some questions to ask when editing your work:

• Is this the right word to describe a certain image, idea, or sensation?
• Do my sentences have enough variation in length and structure?
• Are the words I use easy to understand? If I use jargon or academic language, is the meaning of the text still clear?
• Do I use active vs passive voice with intent?
• Have I omitted any unnecessary words?
• How does it sound to read my work aloud? Does it flow like it should?
• Do I use sonic and poetic devices , like alliteration, consonance, assonance, and internal rhyme, to make the writing more enjoyable? Do those devices enhance the text?
• How does the text transition between scenes and ideas? Do these transitions enhance the logical flow of plot and ideas?
• Do I repeat certain words a lot? Do those repetitions contribute to the text, or do they become redundant?
• Have I employed the “show, don’t tell” rule consistently in my writing? Do I have a good balance of showing and telling?
• Do I use metaphors, similes, and analogies to illustrate important ideas in new and thought-provoking ways?
• Is the writing clear at the word, sentence, and paragraph level?
• Does the dialogue sound like it was spoken by a real person? Does each character have a distinct voice, separate from the voice of the author?

Note: editing does not include proofreading. Proofreading is something you typically do once the final draft is done. It is the process of making sure there are no typos, misspellings, misplaced punctuation marks, or grammatical errors. Do this once you’ve thoroughly covered revising and editing.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these skills.

Revising Vs Editing: Revision Strategies for Writing

In addition to asking the above questions, here are some revision strategies to help you tackle the macro-level concerns in your writing.

Revision Strategies: Take a break after drafting

Before you get to revising and editing your work, take a break when you’ve finished the first draft. It is much easier to revise and edit when you can look at your work with a fresh set of eyes.

How long should you wait? It really depends. Some authors give their work 2 or 4 weeks. Stephen King recommends a 6 week break in his book On Writing . Really, you should give yourself enough time to forget the finer details of your work, but not so much time that you lose passion for the project.

Revision Strategies: Write a memory draft

Here’s a crazy idea: when you’re done with your first draft, throw it out.

Right. Don’t save a copy. Don’t reread what you’ve written. Don’t give yourself any access to it. Once you’ve written the final word, delete everything.

Why would you do this? Some writers, called “pantsers” or “discovery writers”, don’t plot in advance, they just write from scratch and figure it out as they go. When you delete this draft, you’re forced to write it again from memory. This “memory draft” will be written from only the most salient parts of the first draft—the parts that were memorable, enjoyable, and essential to the work.

Of course, you can write a memory draft without deleting your first draft. Deleting the first draft just makes it easier to ensure you never go back. This approach is not for everyone, but for some writers, such as our instructor Sarah Aronson , it results in the strongest possible work.

Revision Strategies: Create a plot line

If you’re a pantser, or even if you plot everything in advance, return to your work by creating a plot line.

Go scene by scene. What is every action that drives the writing forward? Who are the characters involved? Are those actions consistent with the characters?

Also give consideration to different plot structures. What plot structure does the story use? Is there a main plot and subplot(s)? How do the subplots tie into the plot as a whole?

Plot lines help you zoom out. Seeing your work at the macro-level is the key difference between revising and editing; to revise your work, you must be able to see it from a distance before zooming in closer.

Revision Strategies: Funneling

Funneling is a process for zooming into the work from a distance. It asks you to get progressively more in-the-weeds with your writing.

First, you need to look at the work as a whole. What are the overall themes and messages? What does the work accomplish, or try to accomplish? How is the work structured? Does the work feel essential?

Then, zoom in, and ask those same questions at the various sublevels of the work. Ask these questions by section, by chapter, by scene, by paragraph, and even sentence by sentence. Evaluating the purpose of each individual component helps you decide what to keep, what to cut, and what to revise and edit.

Revision Strategies: Look for discontinuities

Another way to decide what to keep, cut, revise and edit, is to spend time intentionally searching for discontinuities.

What are discontinuities? These are parts of the text where the writing is not continuous. They can be caused by the following:

• Sections of the text that don’t ultimately contribute to the plot, subplots, characters, character development, setting, etc.
• Plot threads that haven’t yet been tied up, but need to be.
• Subplots that ultimately do not impact the main plot of the story.
• Gaps in plot or characterization that need to be filled for the story to make sense.

Some discontinuities are intentional, and writers should certainly lean into ambiguity and interpretation. But your story should also say everything it needs to. Discontinuities hinder a story’s ability to do this. By snuffing them out and fixing them, you can prepare a text that is much more ready for editing.

Revising Vs Editing: Editing Strategies for Writing

In addition to asking the previous questions we’ve listed for editing your work, here are some editing strategies to help you tackle the micro-level concerns in your writing.

Editing Strategies: Read it out loud

Yes, even if it’s novel-length. Reading your work out loud is essential to honing your prose. (This is also true for writing poetry !)

The way that writing flows in your head is not necessarily how it flows when spoken aloud. As a result, your writing might sound good when you read it, but not when you say it. Writing that sounds good out loud always sounds good on the page; writing that sounds clunky or hard to follow out loud might be read the same way.

In addition to catching opportunities for stylistic improvement, reading your work out loud also gives you a chance to experience your work in a different way. You might gain a new perspective that helps you tackle major revisions.

Editing Strategies: Focus on specificity

Ambiguity has its place in literature. But, when it comes to giving good detail and description, specificity is key.

Take this passage, from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy:

“Having sufficiently rested they proceeded on their way at evenfall. The dense trees of the avenue rendered the road dark as a tunnel, though the open land on each side was still under a faint daylight. In other words, they passed down a midnight between two gloamings.”

Look at how the attention to detail in this passage paints such a dazzling image. I can see this picture moving in my mind’s eye. And, the phrase “a midnight between two gloamings” is both poetic and musical, making this excerpt an all around enjoyable read.

What would a nonspecific passage of text look like? Instead of the above, imagine Hardy writing “The road was shady.” Maybe you can picture that in your head, but does the image move? Do you know that the shade is provided by trees, as opposed to buildings? Does it even matter whether the road was shady or not?

You don’t need to make everything specific, but specificity helps draw the reader’s attention to what’s beautiful and important. Through specificity, writers can access something both stimulating and poetic for the reader. Use this tool whenever you want to draw the mind’s eye somewhere.

Editing Strategies: Omit needless words

Omitting needless words is central to the art of editing. If a word isn’t doing important work, or if there is a less wordy way to say something, cut it out of the text. Be heartless!

Your style will always be improved by concision. Not brevity, but concision —where every word does important, necessary work. A sentence can be 200 words long, so long as every word is essential.

Common words to omit include adverbs, undescriptive adjectives, passive phrases that are better off active, and prepositions in place of stronger verbs. For more tips, check out our article on this topic:

https://writers.com/concise-writing

Editing Strategies: Turn repetition into variety

Repetition is a useful stylistic device to emphasize the important ideas and images in a text. But, repetition should be used sparingly. To keep your writing fresh and engaging, try not to repeat yourself too much, and call out parts of your text where you do.

This is true at both the word and sentence level. At the word level, keep things visually interesting. If a lot of things in your scene are already yellow, then the building can be green, for example. Also be sure to vary your transition words. If you use “then” to move to every next scene, the reader will catch on and get annoyed, quickly.

At the sentence level, vary your sentence lengths and structures. A series of short sentences will start to sound staccato. Too many long sentences will tax the reader’s attention. Sentences of any length can be used in any way. But, as a quick guide, you can often use short sentences to convey brief summary or information, medium sentences to advance the narrative, and long sentences for moments of introspection or important description. Again, any sentence of any length can do any of those things, but that’s an easy rule to start from.

Even at the paragraph level, try to have a mix of long and short paragraphs, where you can. Also, try to include dialogue at regular intervals. If your characters haven’t spoken for at least 3 pages, let their voices onto the page.

Editing Strategies: Ask yourself, who does your writing sound like?

This is an important question to ask when you’re editing your work. Who does your writing sound like?

It is important to define this, because you want the writing to sound like it’s coming from a real person. If you’re writing nonfiction, then you obviously want the writing to sound like yourself.

When writing fiction, the writing may sound like yourself, but remember, the narrator is not necessarily the author. So, the text should sound like whoever is narrating the story, even if it has some stylistic consistencies with other fiction you’ve written.

What you absolutely do not want is to affect a lofty manner. You can be artful, musical, poetic even, but you absolutely cannot Sound Like A Writer. Using elaborate sentence structures, academic vocabulary, or else trying to write High Literature will only make your writing sound pretentious. Talk to your reader, not above them.

Also, be sure to know the warning signs of when a passage of text is purple prose .

Revising and Editing Strategies

These strategies are useful for both revising and editing. As you revise and edit your work, consider doing the following:

Revising and Editing: Read like a writer

The best way to improve as a writer is to read other writers like a writer yourself. This is invaluable advice, especially for anyone learning how to write a novel . Paying attention to the craft skills that go into a work of literature will help you think about the decisions you make in your own work.

You can do this at both a revising and editing level. How did the author structure their text? Why does the chapter end here? What did they intend to do by using that specific word choice? Why is this sentence so long?

When you make a practice of doing this, it is much easier to bring that practice into your own work.

Learn more about reading like a writer here:

https://writers.com/how-to-read-like-a-writer

Revising and Editing: Print it out

Most people these days write using a computer. (I say most, because our instructor Troy Wilderson writes her novels freehand.) Whatever medium you use to write, try using a different medium to revise and edit.

So, if you typed your first draft, print it out and mark up the physical pages. If you happened to write freehand or use a typewriter, type up those pages and revise from there.

The point is to think about your work in a different medium. Revising and editing with different technology helps shift the gears in your brain, and it also encourages you to see your work with a different perspective. For whatever reason, you’ll think about your work with a fresh set of eyes if it’s sitting in front of you in a different format.

And, if you don’t have access to a printer, at least put your writing in a different text editor. Move from Microsoft Word to Google Docs, or even use a novel editing software like Scrivener . Anything to get you out of writing mode, and into revising mode, allowing you to see your work from a new angle.

Revising and Editing: Don’t do it all at once

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. The same holds true for revising and editing.

If you try to tackle it all at once, you will create three problems for yourself.

One, you will rush through a process that requires slow, methodical labor. Trying to tackle everything right away will result in a work that’s fundamentally incomplete.

Two, you will end up ignoring or neglecting important or powerful opportunities for revision. Taking things slow helps you think more clearly about your work. You might miss out on powerful insights by trying to accomplish everything right away. You might also force yourself to avoid the work that needs to be done, such as major revisions or a full scale rewrite.

Three, you miss out on the joy of revising and editing. This is a fundamentally fun experience. It is also an experience central to being an author. Let yourself have it.

Revising and Editing: Read in reverse

Try reading your work from end to beginning. Read each sentence left to right, but read the sentences from back to front.

This might seem a little strange. After all, won’t you lose the meaning of the sentences by doing this? Well, that’s exactly the point—reading in reverse allows you to see the text in a new light. You might notice a sentence that is far less musical when it stands on its own. Or, you might find information that’s been unnecessarily repeated. At the structural level, you might realize that certain passages, sections, or scenes are too close to the end (or middle, or beginning) of the text.

This is another effort to see your work in a new light. Taking as many opportunities as you can to do this will inevitably result in a stronger, more satisfying story.

Revising and Editing: Get feedback

When you’ve reached the limit of what you can accomplish yourself, it’s time to get feedback on your work.

The important thing is knowing when you’ve reached this limit . Most people should not seek feedback when they’ve finished the first draft. Why? Because the work is in a far more vulnerable state. You need to give yourself time to revise and edit using only your own expertise.

In other words, you need to bring the work much closer to your vision for the work before other people see it. Letting people in too early could result in feedback that changes the story as a whole, and brings it further away from the vision you have for it.

Give yourself a few revisions before you start getting feedback on your work. Trust in your own instinct and artistic vision. Feedback should help you reach that vision; anything that alters it doesn’t belong in the final draft.

Here are some things to ask yourself in both the revising and editing stages of your work. 

• Does the writing begin where it should?
• Does the juxtaposition of different ideas enhance those ideas?
• Do the characters of the text represent different ideas and messages?
• Do the settings represent certain themes and ideas?
• Do the settings impact the characters’ decisions?
• Is the plot shaped by conflict?
• Is the narrator clearly defined?
• Does the story’s mood complement the story itself?
• Does the story have a clearly defined climax?
• Do certain characters transform by the end of the story? (If not, is that intentional?)
• Is every word the right word to describe a certain image, idea, or sensation?
• Does my writing flow when spoken out loud?
• Do I use sonic devices to make the writing more enjoyable? Do those devices enhance the text?
• Do transitions enhance the logical flow of plot and ideas?
• Have I employed the “show, don’t tell” rule consistently in my writing?
• Do I have a good balance of showing and telling?
• Do I use metaphors, similes, and analogies to illustrate ideas in thought-provoking ways?
• Does the dialogue sound like it was spoken by a real person?
• Does each character have a distinct voice, separate from the voice of the author?

Get Tips for Revising and Editing Your Work at Writers.com

Revising and editing your work isn’t easy. Make it easier with feedback from the instructors at Writers.com. Take a look at our upcoming online writing classes , where you’ll receive expert guidance and instruction from our roster of successful, stylish authors.

Sean Glatch

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Along for the Write

How to Edit Writing Like a Professional: 14 Tips for Editing Stories

If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you’ll know from the advice of more seasoned writers that editing is an essential step in making your work shine.

All writers know in their heads that editing is necessary, but often our hearts rebel. We frequently love the writing process—expressing ourselves on the page and writing beautiful things—but the editing process may leave us feeling less than enthralled.

But if you feel this way too, then I’ve got you covered! Let’s talk about editing and discover 14 tips for editing that will take the revision process from dreaded to delightful.

Why Should We Edit?

“Our standards for writing are higher and more formal than for speaking…We have only the words. They must be clear.” – Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering the Craft

Why is editing important? The heart of the matter, as Le Guin writes, is that with writing we only have the words on the page. We can’t hear the writer’s tone of voice when the words are said, we can’t see her gestures or facial expressions…there are only words to communicate everything that you would normal use sounds and movements to help express.

Anyone who’s spent time trying to decode a text message or figure out whether an emoji was sarcastic or serious will know the limitations of the written word. And the confusion only continues to grow when we write longer stories for blogs, email communications, books, or any other format. So we must be very careful in what we choose to say to make our messages clear.

Good editing takes a mediocre piece of writing and can transform it into something stunning. Something that will look more attractive to readers (or to potential buyers if you are in the content creation business).

Yet a surprising number of writers underestimate the value of editing, or simply feel confused or disheartened by it.

But never fear, editing doesn’t have to be hard! Let’s take a look at some easy general editing tips, as well as specific editing tips for structure and mechanics, that will help you transform your writing today!

General Editing Tips

1. take a break.

This is the easiest of all the tips—simply set your writing aside for a while. Why? Well, when we’ve just written something, we’re far too close to it to see it clearly.

Think of yourself like a parent. A parent of an ugly baby. Do parents of ugly babies ever think their babies are ugly? NO! Because they’re too close to them. It’s their creation, so of course THEY think it’s beautiful. But everyone else around that can see it’s not cute AT ALL.

Your writing is your baby. Is it cute? Maybe, maybe not. Can we improve it? Of course! So set it aside for a while (a couple hours, a day, a week) so you can get some emotional distance from your writing. Then you’ll be ready to examine and edit it with fresh eyes!

2. Read Your Writing Aloud

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing writers talk about editing, then you’ve almost certainly heard the common refrain: Read aloud! Read aloud!

Why does everyone recommend reading aloud? Because reading aloud helps you to hear your writing in a new way. And when you hear it in a new way, you’re more likely to notice errors that you might not have noticed when reading it in your head.

You may hear structural issues that you need to reorder, errors in sentences, lack of transitions, grammatical mistakes…the whole gamut. Awkward sentence constructions are especially easy to hear when you read aloud, but no matter what issues your writing has you’re sure to catch something you wouldn’t have caught otherwise.

Let me warn you, though: you’ll feel like an idiot reading aloud. But it will be worth it!

Tip: Here are some ways to feel less stupid when reading aloud: 1. Find a private place away from everyone. 2. Pretend you’re in Monty Python sketch. 3. Make someone else read your writing aloud to you.

3. Print it Out

Writing on the computer is wonderful…especially since it is so easy to reorganize and make changes. But if you really want to edit carefully and make sure your writing is perfect, print it out! Having your writing in a physical form in front of you helps you be more careful as you read, and makes you less likely to accidentally skip over small or big issues.

In addition, when you have it printed out you can try my favorite editing trick: grab a pencil or pen and drag it along above each line as you read. If your pencil stops or hesitates in a spot, you’ll know it when you look back at the lines you’ve drawn.

These hesitant areas are places where your brain may have subconsciously noticed something was wrong even if you didn’t consciously notice it. So now you can go back and reread those sections to figure out what you need to fix!

Structural Editing Tips

One of the keys of good editing is to edit in stages. The first editing stage should be reading for structure — just like the first step in building a building is making sure you have the structure in place. So forget about grammar and issues of mechanics for now, and simply focus on the big picture of your writing. Here are some tips to help with this stage!

1. Check for Organization

Organization is one of the biggest structural issues, so this is a good place to start in your first round of editing.

You’ll want to check your introduction and conclusion to make sure they’re in place and that they hook the reader and sum up your story respectively. But next, and perhaps more importantly, you will want to make sure that all the content in between these bookend paragraphs flows logically.

To do this, I recommend writing a sentence in the margin for each paragraph. This sentence should tell what each paragraph does for your story so you can see how it contributes to the story as a whole.

Then, when you read back over the notes you’ve left, check to see if all the paragraphs contribute in some way or if any seem like unnecessary tangents. If anything is unnecessary, remove it.

Next, check to see if any paragraphs are in the wrong place in the essay. You want to make sure that your writing flows logically instead of skipping around to different ideas without rhyme or reason. If a paragraph is in the wrong place, then move it!

Finally, check to see if you have several paragraphs talking about one idea. If you do, you may not need all of them. So think about combining two or more of these paragraphs together. It may not always be necessary to combine, but we want to make sure each paragraph has a function and functions well…so consider this carefully.

2. Control Your Pace

Checking the organization on a paragraph level should have ironed out some big issues in your writing, but now it’s time to look at pace. Does your writing flow at a good speed? Or are you too bogged down in details in some sections? Do you skim over important information in other places?

Pacing is a way to control the rhythm and the speed at which you pull your readers through the events in your writing. Sometimes you’ll want the pace to be even, sometimes you’ll want it to go faster (for instance, if there’s an exciting event happening and you want your reader to experience that sense of movement).

So think about your intent in each section and ask yourself if its current speed contributes to the feeling you want to express. If it doesn’t, think about how you can speed it up or slow it down.

3. Remove Repetition

Do the ideas in your writing repeat themselves over and over again as you try to explain your point? Is your writing starting to feel like Groundhog Day ? Time to fix that!

Part of clarity in writing means you should say exactly what you mean…and then move on! Don’t keep circling around to the same point again and again or keep returning to it later in your writing.

Check to see that each paragraph has one topic and that you stay on topic. Say all that you have to say, and then allow your writing to progress to new ideas.

4. Cut Anything that Doesn’t Work

This is the hardest (and saddest) part of editing for many writers: cutting out all the unnecessary parts.

It’s especially sad when the unnecessary parts are some of your favorite and most beautiful writing.

Hopefully with the organization stage (step 1) you already tossed out any unnecessary sections on the paragraph level, but now it’s time to go through on a sentence-by-sentence basis to make sure every piece is contributing to making your writing a success.

Why is this necessary to do in the editing stage instead of just when you’re writing? As Jon Franklin says in Writing for Story , “The simple (or not so simple) process of writing the story through, if you’ve invested yourself in it, has changed you. You’re no longer the same person.” When you’ve made it to the end of writing the story, you can now see your story from the inside, whereas before you could only see it from the outside. And with your insider’s view you will understand more of what the story needs and how you need to tell it.

And sometimes this will mean cutting out your favorite parts, because from an insider’s view you can now see that they’re just clutter. Beautiful clutter. But still clutter.

So let’s cut and throw away without remorse! Our readers don’t want confusion, they want clarity. So let’s do our best to give them clarity.

Grammar and Mechanics Editing Tips

Once you’ve completed the structural stage of editing, it’s time for round two: editing for mechanics. This stage focuses on the small and specific, looking at grammar, spelling, and other choices that affect how you say what you’re trying to say. Let’s dive in!

1. Check Your Spelling

This one should be obvious (hopefully!) and thankfully we have spellcheck today to make our lives easier. But you still have to be careful…especially with words that are homonyms like “our” and “are” or “two” “to” and “too.” Spellcheck won’t always catch these mistakes for you! So take a quick moment to make sure your spelling and word choices are correct.

2. Police your Punctuation

Do you know when to use a comma? When to use a dash? When to use a colon or semicolon? If you don’t (or if it’s all a little fuzzy), now’s a great time to pick up a punctuation guide like The Elements of Style or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

When you edit you’ll want to watch out for places where you use too much punctuation. It can be especially easy to overuse and misuse commas, which can affect the flow for your readers. So grab a style guide and start cutting out unnecessary punctuation!

3. Remove Redundant Words

Now that we’ve removed unnecessary punctuation, it’s time to remove redundant words. This will help make your writing more concise and clear.

Like redundancies in your ideas, occasionally you’ll find yourself with redundant words in your writing. Words like “exact same,” “close proximity,” “combine together”…each of the words in the pairs have the same meaning, so you do not need them both in your sentence (unless you’re trying to hit a word count for a paper you have to turn in 😉) Using these duplicate words just makes your writing wordy.

Removing redundant words also applies to cutting unnecessary word phrases like “in order to” or “be able to.” If you’re going to write a story in order to share your ideas with the world, you’re really just writing a story to share your ideas with the world. If you are able to write a story, you can write a story.

So in this step, try to make your sentences more concise whenever and wherever you can!

4. Vary Sentence Lengths

Journalism and the blogging world tries to tell us that the only good sentences are short sentences (I’m with Ursula K. Le Guin in responding that this is only “true for convicted criminals”).

I firmly believe you should vary your sentence lengths, as this will make your writing more pleasing to read. Too many short sentences sounds choppy, too many long sentences sounds long-winded and wordy.

Of course, any long sentences you write should still be easy to read. They should not be convoluted and long just for the sake of being long. But similarly, your short sentences shouldn’t be short just for the sake of being short.

So as you edit, try for some variation! Think about the rhythm of your writing. Do you gravitate toward short sentences? Do you rely on long sentences? Then try to switch it up so you have some of each.

Tip: Keep in mind what each sentence is trying to do. As a general rule, short sentences often correspond with action and long sentences often correspond with places where you are building emotion.

5. Pass on the Passive Voice

Passive voice isn’t wrong , but using it can make it harder to understand your writing. So use it judiciously.

What is the difference between active and passive voice?

Active voice: She writes the story.

Passive voice: The story was written by her.

So what’s the difference? In active voice, the thing doing the action is the subject (she). In passive voice, the thing receiving the action is the subject (the story).

We often use passive voice to hide who did the action (like when you were a kid and didn’t want to admit who did the bad thing your parents are going to be upset about…”The cookies were eaten.” “The window was broken”).

But besides cases of hiding blame, passive voice is unnecessary most of the time. You’re free to use it, but just be aware of when, where, and how much you use the passive voice so you don’t accidentally hide your message behind a wall of confusion.

6. Eliminate Static Verbs

As mentioned earlier, writing’s biggest limitation is only having words on a page to express your meaning. This limitation means that writing can easily become static and boring if you don’t watch carefully!

But you can counteract this tendency towards the static and boring by being picky about the verbs you choose.

Action is the name of the game here; try to avoid versions of the verb “to be” (“is,” “am,” “are, “was,” “were,” “being,” “been”) as well as verbs like “have,” “has,” “had” and “do,” “does,” “did.”

The above are all static verbs, and especially in storytelling you want to remove these from your vocabulary as far as possible.

Instead, replace them with stronger and more active verbs. For example:

Static verb : They were confident again.

Active verb: They regained confidence.

Using verbs with action rather than using static verbs will make your writing more powerful, concise, and snappy…so it is worth the time to go through your writing with a red pen (or the CTRL+F function) to activate those verbs!

7. Watch Your Adverbs and Adjectives

Sometimes adverbs and adjectives help you describe, but often they are unnecessary or unhelpful. As you edit you will want to determine where you can replace or update your adverbs and adjectives to make your writing more descriptive.

For example, does the person you’re describing walk slowly…or do they amble? Does the front door close loudly…or does it slam? Instead of using the adverbs “slowly,” “loudly,” etc., try removing the adverb and replacing the verb with one filled with more meaning.

Similarly, adverbs like “very,” “just,” or “really” can make your writing more wordy than it should be. Which is better: she was very happy…or, she was ecstatic? He was really tired…or, he was exhausted?

Replacing the verb + adverb combination with a more powerful verb, and replacing the adverb + adjective combination with a more powerful adjective will make your writing far more compelling.

Anything to add? What are your best editing tips and tricks? Share in the comments below!

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Abi Johnson

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How to Edit Your Story Like a New York Publisher

by Pamela Fernuik | 44 comments

Start Your Story TODAY! We’re teaching a new LIVE workshop this week to help you start your next book. Learn more and sign up here.

You have finished writing the first draft of your story, a version of your whole story from beginning to end. Now it is time to edit, to revise your words to make your story clear and compelling, so the reader will continue reading after the first sentence. Are you wondering how to edit your story? Don't worry; I have some advice for you.

Editing your story might feel like an impossible task, but with a strong strategy, you can edit your own story with confidence and improve your writing.

Whatever you do, do not skip the important step of editing your first draft. According to David Remnick, an editor of The New Yorker , “Revision is all there is.”

17 Steps to Edit Your Story

When you say “editing,” many writers think solely of grammar or punctuation.

It is good to have all your commas in the right places and to make sure you don’t mix up to and two, too many times. However, you might be wasting time editing for grammatical errors in a paragraph you decide to cut.

Edit for story structure before you edit for grammar and punctuation.

Here are seventeen tips for how to edit your story for both structure and grammar:

1. Write your story.

First, you have to write your story. A first draft is a complete version of your story, from beginning to end. Don't edit before you write the entire story. I know you want to polish your paragraphs, but please wait.

Think of your story as though you were building a house. The first draft is like framing a home. You wouldn’t put up drywall in one room, paint, and move in the furniture, before you have completely framed the house. Write the complete story and then revise.

2. Print out your story.

Wait. Before you print it out, run it through spell-check and correct all the grammar errors the auto-checker finds. Then print it out.

Wait. One more thing. Before you switch from writer to reader, let your story sit for a day of two, give it time to breathe. If you are on a deadline for a writing contest and just finished your first draft, and it is due in three hours, or one hour, take a few minutes away from your story, walk around the block, have a bath, or get a glass of water, then read your story.

Get away from the role of the writer so you can be your own first reader. —Stephen Koch, Modern Library Writer's Workshop

3. Read your story out loud.

Okay, no more waiting. Read your story out loud. Have a marker in hand to circle any words that don't make sense or any that are repeated. Anywhere you have to stop to reread might need some work—circle it and keep reading.

Read the entire draft in one sitting. Don't stop to edit while reading; make notes in the margin as you read it about what makes sense, where you might be missing connections, places where there's confusing dialogue or missing plot points. Don't fix it yet, just mark it.

Story Structure

Now that you have written your story, let it sit, and read it through once, it is time to begin editing. Remember to start with your story's structure before you edit the grammar.

4. Revise for plot

Does your story have a beginning, a middle, and an end?

Shawn Coyne, an editor with over twenty-five years of experience, talks about the five elements of a story in his book, The Story Grid .

“The five elements that build story are the inciting incident (either causal or coincidental), progressive complications expressed through active or revelatory turning points, a crisis question that requires a choice between at least two negative alternatives or at least two irreconcilable goods, the climax choice and the resolution.”

Is there something that is compelling your protagonist to act, like an inciting incident?

An inciting incident is an event that forces your protagonist to act, compelling them to stop sitting around and do something.

Is there conflict in the middle of your story? A story with no conflict is like a cake with no baking powder. The cake won't rise. The story will be flat.

Does the ending resolve the conflict? Readers expect story resolution. If Aunt Mary has been taken captive by a herd of cats in the middle of the story, readers will want to know what happened to Aunt Mary by the end of the story.

Need help with story structure? Check out our full guide here .

5. Write in the margin what each paragraph does.

I have just told you to revise for story structure. “How do I do that?” you ask. Here is the first step: write in the margin what each paragraph does.

Take out the paragraphs that don’t move the story forward, or combine the paragraphs that are similar.

Shawn Coyne suggests you write down your list of scenes, the word count for each scene, and a short sentence to summarize what happens in each scene.

When you look at the word count for each scene, you will see if your scenes have equal weight. The industry standard is for the beginning hook to be 25% of the story, the middle build to be about 50% and the ending payoff to be about 25% of the story.

In a short story, you may have just one scene. Even so, look at the balance of the beginning, middle, and end. Do you spend too much time on the setup, with lots of exposition ? Or is the climax too short, rushing the story to the end?

6. Take out the boring parts.

When you read your story out loud, if there are parts you don’t want to read because they are boring, or redundant, take them out.

Or as Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project , says,

“The most basic rule of editing is that if you can’t bear to read it, no one else can either. So when you find yourself skimming, commit murder.”

7. Second Draft Math Equation by Stephen King

Does this apply to your story? What do you need to cut? Where can you tighten dialogue or description?

8. Revise for Clarity.

Listen when you read your story. Is it clear who is talking in your dialogue? If there are places where you are confused, your readers will be confused, too.

Here is another way to find out whether your story is clear: ask your readers to summarize the story for you.

“If the story you hear back is something other than the story you told—you will learn where to revise.” —Stephen Koch

9. Revise the setting.

Does the setting seem like a place you have been? Does it seem real?

One way to make the setting more alive is to describe it using small details, to describe the setting using your five senses , sight, taste, smell, sound, and touch.

Edit for Grammar and Punctuation

Now that you have solidified your story's structure, I give you permission to edit your story for grammar and punctuation.

10. Look for passive verbs.

After you have revised for story structure, print out your story again and circle all of the verbs.

Verbs come in two types: active and passive. Look for the passive voice and decide if the meaning of your sentence would be clearer if it was written in the active voice or the passive voice.

When you use the active voice, the subject performs the action expressed by the verb: The dog chased the cat. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action expressed by the verb: A cat was chased by the dog.

If the subject of a sentence is being acted upon by an outside force, the sentence is in passive voice. —Liz Bureman

If you are not sure whether you should use active or passive voice, you can read this guide . Liz Bureman gives several reasons why you would want to use the active voice or the passive voice.

11. Revise dialogue.

“The best form of dialogue attrition is said , as in he said, she said, Bill said, Monica said,” says Stephen King emphatically in On Writing.

Wait! Stephen King doesn't say it emphatically. He just says it. The focus should be on what was said, and not on the verb used to describe what he said.

Show emotion with an action instead of with adjectives . Like this:

“I hate you,” she said, hurling her French book at him. The corner struck him just under the eye. A bright red mark began to rise on his skin.

Remember to check the punctuation of dialogue in your story, too.

12. Avoid these seven words.

After you have revised your verbs, print out your story again, and look for these seven words which can weaken your writing: one of , some , thing , very , adverbs that end in -ly , and leading words such as mostly and so .

Joe Bunting, the founder of The Write Practice  wrote a detailed article on how cutting these words will make you a better writer .

13. Look for clichés.

A cliché, according to Dictionary.com is a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.

Examples of clichés are:

• Cold as ice
• At this moment in time
• Think outside the box
• Like a fish out of water

The danger of using clichés in your writing is that your readers have heard them already. In fact, they have heard them so many times that they no longer hold meaning.

In addition, different cultures may interpret the cliché differently based on their cultural identity.

Is there another way to say the room was as cold as ice? You could describe the frost on the windows, or that you could see your breath in the room.

If someone was acting like a fish out of water how would they behave? I imagine a fish laying on the ground flopping around. Is that how you see the person in your story behaving? How would a person behave who was in an environment that wasn’t familiar to them? Would they be anxious? How do you show anxious? Would they keep checking their watch? Look over their shoulder?

14. Look for telling instead of showing.

Telling in a story is when you tell the reader a detail about someone’s character rather than allowing the reader to infer it for themselves. For example:

Henry was depressed.

You are telling me what to think.

Telling puts the reader as observer, separated from the story; when you show, I feel like I am in the story. The secret to show and not tell is to be more specific .

Showing is when you describe Henry’s behavior, and you let me decide what to think about Henry.

Henry stayed in his bed all day. The phone rang, but he didn't answer it. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He stared at the crack in the ceiling and counted the dead flies on the wax strip that was pinned to the corner of the window.

15. Search your story for sentences that begin with “I.”

After you have revised your story for structure, verb usage, dialogue, cliches, and the seven words to avoid. Print your story out again.

Search your story for every sentence that begins with “I.” Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project, suggests you re-write at least two-thirds of those sentences to begin with action.

If you're writing in first-person, you might still need quite a few of those “I” statements. Just make sure they aren't getting repetitive. (Need help with point of view ? Check out this article. )

If you would like to improve your story's style even more, don't stop here.

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is full of helpful tips about the elementary rules of usage, the elementary principles of composition, commonly misused words and expressions, and tips on style. Here are ten tips to improve your writing style from The Elements of Style .

16. Check your punctuation.

The Write Practice has an essential guide to writing with good grammar. The guide gives you advice about punctuation and how to use either, neither, or, and nor correctly.

Your story might be the best thing since the invention of sliced bread, but if you don’t know where to put a comma , a reader might misunderstand what you are trying to say.

17. Read it aloud one more time.

When you think your story is finished, print it out and read it out loud one last time.

Is there anything more you need to change? Is the structure solid? Are the word choices and grammar polished?

Or is it ready to publish? If so, share it with your friends and family, enter it in a writing contest, or submit it to a literary magazine.

Congratulations! It is time to share your writing with the world.

Don't Forget to Edit

I know you are eager to send your story out into the world. Wait—don't send it before it is ready. Remember to edit your story to make it the best it can be.

Then, when you have done everything you can, be bold and publish .

You are the writer. The story you wrote is yours. Listen to advice, learn from it, and keep writing.

Do you have any other tips on how to edit your story? Let me know in the comments .

Find a story you have already written. Maybe it is a chapter of your work in progress, maybe it is a practice you shared on another article, or maybe it's something else. Take fifteen minutes to work through as many of the steps above as you can.

If you don't have something written already, take five minutes to write a story about a woman who has too many litter boxes (or any other household item). Pause for a moment to let your mind clear. Then, take ten minutes to work through as many of the steps above as you can.

When your time is up, share your editing practice in the Pro Practice Workshop here . If you share, please leave feedback for your fellow writers.

Pamela Fernuik

Pamela writes stories about art and creativity to help you become the artist you were meant to be. She would love to meet you at www.ipaintiwrite.com .

44 Comments

There are different Levels of „Editing“…the most obvious is the Mechanics like Typing, Grammar, better phrasing for precision, even the brutality of Butchering limbs off… The more demanding is Reflection: did I put a good description of my images into letters… Almost like remembering a distant dream, which needs to be remembered The most difficult is concept Overlap: several different stories are merged into one, like watching several TV programs the same time…it requires skills in Anatomy. The best stories do not need anything at all. You can not make them worse.And not better…

Hello Rag Mars, I agree refection can be the most demanding as a writer. It important for a writer to think about what they are trying to say in their story, and by reflecting they can see if what they wanted to say was heard. Saving earlier drafts is a good idea. Sometimes after I have revised a story several times, I go back to an earlier draft and find the first way I wrote a section was written more clearly the first time. What kind of story do you like to write? xo Pamela

The best stories are not written yet. An old Wine Cellar in Southern France hides the best wines of the last 200 years well preserved deep in a cave in the Mountain. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo was one of those well hidden manuscripts discovered there…. by chance by Auguste Maquet. Disguised as an old peasant from the area, I stroll through those hills and one day, like Carter and Maquet, I find that cave and its treasures of wine and manuscripts. Now you know, why the best and most precious is never available…

You suggest not to edit mine until I complete my first draft.But there are others who suggest it is always good to edit then and there while I am writing.The latter idea sounds to me a sound proposal, because this idea is time savy and quickens my creativity and of course enables me to publish mine as quickly as possible..

Hello S. Ramalingam, If you edit while you are writing, you might forget the story you are trying to tell as you re-write sentences.

Shawn Coyne, the author of “The Story Grid” said, “I cannot overemphasize how important it is NOT TO RE-WRITE your first draft. Until you reach its final two words . . . THE END.” Here is an article on writing first drafts. Hopefully it will help you with your writing. https://thewritepractice.com/first-draft/ xo Pamela

I fall into the I want to get the story out there as soon as I can. But then there are times I tell too much not leaving anything to the imagination of the reader.

Hello Debra, Sharing a story can be very exciting. Knowing the balance between telling too much and not enough can be tricky. I wonder if the more stories we write, the more we learn? xo Pamela

Great post, Pamela; thorough and didactic. I have a method I use once a story has had its share of revisions following many of the steps described in your post—I record myself reading it then play it back while I follow the printed copy. It’s tantamount to creating my own “audiostory”. It helps in pointing out misplaced punctuation or lack thereof; it helps to home in on dialogue to determine whether it’s credible or not or if there’s too much backstory. It’s also helpful to determine whether you’re doing too much telling instead of showing in your narrative. Overall, I think it helps me tune in better to where the mistakes lie when I’m listening to my own voice while I follow the hardcopy of the manuscript as opposed to reading it out loud paying attention to the possible corrections that must be marked or noted.

Hello Claire, Oh, I love your idea! I will try that on my next story. To record me reading the story, and then listen while I read along. Thank you for sharing how you edit. xo Pamela

You’re welcome, Pamela. I’d be interested in knowing if the method worked for you. Please let me know.

Great advice, Pamela. It’ll make my editing process more focused and thorough. Thank you for this helpful post.

Hello Danka Orihel, Thank you. I am glad the article is helpful. If you get a chance please share some of your writing. I would love to read something you wrote. xo Pamela

I wonder if you received my story When the Chestnuts Bloomed .

Hello Danka. I am sorry I didn’t receive it. Please share part of your story here with The Write Practice readers and me. 🙂 xo Pamela

You slump in the hard, cold gutter peering up at the sputtering street corner lamp, misted with fog. The old song beats dirge-like in your mind. “Past three o’clock on a cold, frosty morning”. You mumble the next line: “Past three o’clock, good morrow, masters all,” head a metronome moving with the words. Your words slur as, owl-like, dull awareness of meaning filters through. You drag your tail slowly and deliberately along the smooth damp guttering towards the lamp post. You lean over at last to embrace its firmness. You prop yourself against it, relax, drowse off. You wake dizzy mouth dry and sour. Your mind replays; “Good Morrow, masters all.” You stiffen. “Good Morrow? I’ll give ’em bloody Good Morrow! Whole bloody lot of ’em! See if I don’t!” You relax and drowse again. Later, the sky now greying, you shake yourself, pull yourself upright against the lamp-post. “You’re a real mate,” you tell it, patting its smooth back. You push yourself away. “Thanks mate,” you murmur nodding in farewell. You hobble back a few paces, your foot painful. You bend down ever so steadily. You pick up the wine bottle and put it to your lips. A few bitter drops only. “Bloody empty!’ you grind out disgusted. “Bloody empty,” you repeat, angry as you pitch it at the lamp-post. Unsteady you stagger from the effort. “Bottles,” you slur, “like most people: full of empty promises!” Your head throbs. You move to the fence margin and support yourself as you hobble along, then along shop-fronts. You reach a corner. “To cross or not to cross, that is the question!’ and pause, giddy. “Hell, you might as well cross,” you giggle, “at least you’ll find out whether you’ll be or not be!” You stagger across, more upright. There is no traffic, not even the milk-man doing his rounds. All is eerily quiet. You turn right and make your slow, dignified way down the avenue helped occasionally by a friendly fence. Mr Jones at Number 33 is coming out his front gate. He waves to you. “Right neighbourly,” you think raising an arm in his direction. Mrs Jones, come to wave him goodbye, scowls shouldering away your “Good morning.” The sun too, refuses to acknowledge you, skulking behind low clouds. “Ah well, what else can you expect?” you think. You push open the gate. The cat, wary at the best of times, lets out a painful yowl. A blur of white, it shoots between your legs. You stumble, your foot catching the gate agonizingly. No use trying the front door. It is locked. You go to the shed. It too is locked. There is a split mark where, frustrated, you kicked it last night. You should have known better. You had done too good a repair after it had been broken into last year. The only result of that kick was, by the feel of it, a broken toe. You go back to the house and try windows and back door. Waste of time. The old girl was security conscious, all right. She had made it pretty clear she’d be off to her mother’s when you left for your last day of work. “Terminated,” they had said. “It’s the economic downturn.”

Hello frederick schinkel, Your create a scene where I feel like I am there, your description of the character are vivid. For the first half of the story I thought you were talking about an animal, not a person. “You drag your tail slowly…” Anthropomorphism – where you give human characteristics to an animal. Is this part of a longer piece? I am so curious to know what happens to your character. What is the conflict? Is it with his wife? His company? Thank you for sharing your writing. xo Pamela

Thanks for the reply. I honestly didn’t expect one!

This was a writing exercise: “using second person include a broken toe, a nervous cat and three o’clock in the morning. 1000 words.”

After 30 years with THAT company, a wife he thinks has been having an affair and has left him and then his over-night binge to drown his sorrows, I rather think he would drag his well-kicked, drunken tail along the gutter.

I’m wryly amused you accepted “me” as a singing, wine-swilling dog that can prop himself up against a lamp-post.

Conflict? His conflict may well be with his situation surely. Resolution? After breaking into his own house, he decides on “coffee, toast, shower, shave and sleep in that order” and, pragmatic male, decides, “one good thing in all of this: I can do things now as I see fit. Up the tri-color!”

And so the ending: “The sun is up, the birds are twittering, the cat is clawing the gauze door waiting to be fed. Just that painful toe is not right.”

Thanks for your time to comment. Fred.

Hello TerriblyTerrific, Yes, it’s that time. Time to edit. I hate this part too. I could live in creative land, and never edit land, or finish land. xo Pamela

Good ones!!!!! Thank you for understanding.

“Editing as I go on writing” method, though it may sound strange,is easier for me than what you say.Again,White, one of the eminent writers of US, was never satisfied with his writing and editing.There is an amusing story about him.He used to approach the post master for getting back the envelope that contained his writings that he had already posted.As far as White was concerned editing and rewriting was limitless.So, editing is, as far as I am concerned, what I feel more comfortable to me..

Hello S. Ramalingam, Of course, the method that is the most comfortable for you is the best one. You are the author, you are in charge. xo Pamela

I luxuriate under the covers in a slow stretch. No pain. No crazy thoughts, either. I wonder if my Siamese felt like this when she woke up. What a life! I get out of bed. My back doesn’t hurt. Passing the dresser on my way to the bathroom, I see a pink post-it note alongside an empty pill bottle.

“I’m done. Goodbye.”

It’s my writing, dated three days ago. The sleeping pills are gone. I sat down on the bed just as a very beautiful woman walked through the outside wall. That gets my attention. I live on the twelfth floor.

“Good. You’re awake and sitting down. I’m sick and tired of…”

“Who are you?”

“Your guardian angel, missie. This is a Come-to-Jesus meeting, and I don’t mean it metaphorically.”

“Why aren’t you shining?”

“You expect heavenly glory after that stunt?”

“But I’m dead…aren’t I?”

“No, God love you, you’re not. You wrote the check, but the Good Lord, for his own unfathomable reasons, refused to cash it.”

“Why?”

“Why, indeed! Because you have Something Important to do, and Sweet Jesus won’t let you die until you do it. He’s most emphatic about that. So, let’s not step in front of any trains. I’ll just snatch you out of the way.

“I can’t kill myself, no matter what?”

“Praise God! Your comprehension is gratifying. Now, listen up. Your Lord and Savior wants me to deliver this message: ‘Do. What. I. Tell. You.’”

“But what if I don’t want to? I thought I had free will.”

“Honey, that account is 500 years overdrawn. Emmanuel can’t wait. He expects daily deposits of obedience from now.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You get back all the pain and crazy thoughts, plus a few extras at no charge. Still no dying.”

“What about after I do Something Important?”

“Oh, darling! You can kill yourself three times a week if you want. I’ll even suggest a few methods. But Something Important comes first. Got it?”

Hi Shauna Bolton, Wow, so many layers of writing. Is the Siamese a reference to your cat having nine lives? The post it note dated from three days ago, and the woman walking through the wall, are great details. Showing without telling. What do you think about the section of dialogue? I love the back and forth talk, but wanted to have a few details about the room. Or something to keep the reader connected to the story. I didn’t understand the reference to Emmanuel, or why the account was 500 years overdrawn. Like maybe have her holding the pill bottle, or ripping up the post it note, something to put the reader back in the room. Is this part of a longer piece? I am so intrigued to know what happens. xo Pamela

No, the nine lives bit wasn’t what I was thinking of at the time, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m going to work that in. I was just thinking about how cats lie around sleeping all day, and she’s just woken up from three days of uninterrupted sleep. It made sense to compare her condition with a constantly napping cat. Emmanuel is another name for the Messiah, who Christians believe was Jesus Christ, as in the Christmas carol, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” It’s also found in Isaiah, where the prophet says that it means “God with Us.” All of the angel’s names for God are the various ways that people have of talking about Jesus Christ. The metaphor of the check and the account is about the woman living her life without any attention to God or spiritual things, including the purpose of her own life. Her suicide attempt is the last in a long line of bad choices. The angel is telling her that she’s been doing whatever she wants for so long that it would take 500 years for her to make up for it (a little hyperbole on my part). Meanwhile, her “relationship with God” account is empty. The angel is there to tell her that God sent her to do Something Important with her life, and he expects her obedience from now on as the time for doing is near. I hadn’t planned to write a full story; it was just my writing exercise. But, I really like it, and having thought about, I know how it ends, so I’ll keep working on it. As for the room, I was focusing on character and dialogue at the time. After reading your comment, I’ve thought of some ways to bring the room’s description into the scene, so I’ll revise it for that.

Hi Shauna, Thank you for telling me more about your story. xo Pamela

Ms. Hodges, this piece has got me motivated to drive on to finish my novel. Excellent advice. Courtney

Hello Courtney Edwin Gary, Oh goody! How exciting. Please come back and let us know when you complete your novel. So we can celebrate with you. xo Pamela

Oh, what a joy it is to be quoted here in this marvelous piece. Thank you.

Hello Marion Roach Smith, Your writing is the true joy. So happy to share your book and your wisdom with writers. You are very welcome. xo Pamela

Thank you , Pamela.

Clear, straight-forward, and with the why as well as the how clearly set out.

There are not many short-cuts on the road to excellent stories.

Hello Robert Ranck, You are very welcome. The only good short cut is the one through the park to get to the ice-cream store quicker. xo Pamela

Great advice Pamela. So informative. And one thing I always do is to read it aloud as you suggested. Especially since I am an auditory learner. I need to hear if it flows. Now I have a question. Did you slip in the cliche about bread to be funny, since you said not to use cliche’s? Just had to ask. Thanks for the post.

Hello Anne, Oh, how funny, you are so observant. I thought I was being original with the bread comment. But, you are right it is a cliche. Even writers who write about how to edit need to re-read their articles with the editing tips. xo Pamelra

great article. I use Natural Reader because it catches every word. If I’ve doubled up a word, such as, the the, the (ha ha) brain overlooks it. It also spits at me sentences with poor syntax. It’s time consuming. Worth it. Right now I use the freebie version and switch the robotic voices from time to time.

Hello Claire! Thank you for sharing a program you use. I have never heard of Natural Reader, but it looks like it will be helpful. What kind of writing do you like to do? xo Pamela

thank for share! I hope you have many useful articles to share with everyone! fb login

Hello pacman, You are very welcome. The Write Practice has many contributors, I hope you find the articles helpful. xo Pamela

Hi Pamela, I’ve sent my story to your e-mail last week, as you suggested. Have you receive it?

Hello Danka Orihel, I didn’t receive your email. Please share your fifteen minute writing practice here in the comments. Then “The Write Practice” Community can read your stories, and we as a community can encourage you. xo Pamela

Hello Pamela, These tips look really helpful. I will refer to this article when I edit my stories. All my best, xo Love Harper

Natural Reader is easy to use, love it. I write Christian romance, fiction. I copy and paste it into the reader, then I pull my MS up. The Reader doesn’t read ” ” or if my dialogue is missing punctuation-which is why I watch the MS at the same time. I can stop it, fix the MS, and keep going.

Hello Claire, Thank you for explaining Natural Reader, I had never heard of it. What a great idea. xo Pamela

Thanks Pamela!

Great work!

I will have to print this out and pin it to my wall!!!

R. Allan Worrell

Dear Pamela,

Agreeing with you is easy; your advice is good and your writing is simple and clear. May I add one thought? It is this: adjectives and adverbs, used sparingly, enrich and clarify writing; those who disparage them are mistaken. And, oh, yes; pronouns must reflect gender; to use “them” for “he” or “she” exposes sloppy thinking.

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Constant Content Blog

11 tips for editing your own writing (plus a checklist).

Posted October 11, 2017 by Isaac Justesen in Freelance Writers

Good editing can transform a mediocre piece of content into something great. It’s one of the most important aspects of the writing process, but a surprising number of writers underestimate its value.

The Importance of Self-Editing

Becoming a good editor of your own work takes time and practice, but it’s worth it. You’ll learn how to improve the structure and style of your writing, communicate more clearly and eliminate grammatical errors .

Companies want copy that reflects well on their business, provides value to their readers and drives sales, so well-edited content will also look more attractive to content buyers.

Are you ready to become a better editor? You may not have access to a professional editor, but you can use the following tips to help you edit your own writing more effectively.

1. Read Your Writing in a New Format

If you typed it, print it out. Alternatively, convert your Word document to PDF format, or change your text to a different font, color, and size. These techniques will help you see your content from an “outsider’s” perspective and give you a more critical eye.

2. Take a Break

Let your writing rest for a few hours or overnight. Putting a literal distance between you and your work also creates an emotional distance. When you return to it, you’re more likely to spot awkward phrases and obvious mistakes.

3. Read it Out Loud

To discover the rhythm of your writing, read it out loud. The best writing sounds smooth, so if you find yourself stammering through poorly worded sentences, you know it needs improving.

4. Remove Uncertain Language

Good communication sounds authoritative, so avoid wishy-washy sentences. If you use phrases like “seems to be” or “could be a reason for,” you sound indecisive and it weakens your message.

5. Avoid Repetitive Phrases

Try not to rely on certain words or phrases to make your point; readers will notice when you repeat yourself. Aim for variety. Use a word frequency counter to find repetitive words and scan a thesaurus to find alternatives.

6. Eliminate Filler Words

Use your word processor’s find functionality to search for “there,” “here,” and “it” to find redundant words and phrases. For example:

It’s fun to edit your own writing.

The sentence formation weakens the writing with unnecessary words that lack focus. This is more effective:

Editing your own writing is fun.

7. Remove Weak “To Be” Verbs

Using versions of the verb “to be” can weaken the words that follow. Replace “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “been,” and “being” with stronger alternatives. For example:

Weak sentence: They were not enjoying the editing process.

Strong sentence: They hated the editing process.

Stronger sentence: The editing process repulsed them.

8. Remove Weak Adjectives

Weak adjectives also spoil your writing. When describing nouns and pronouns, use more powerful adjectives and avoid the words “really” or “very.”

Weak sentence: He was really scared of snakes.

Strong sentence: He was terrified of snakes.

Stronger sentence: Snakes terrified him.

9. Use Grammarly to Find Mistakes

The Grammarly proofreading tool looks at spelling and grammar mistakes and checks more than 250 advanced rules to find mistakes such as double negatives, run-on sentences, and dangling modifiers. After you’ve used Grammarly a few times, you’ll start to see common weaknesses in your writing.

10. Subscribe to The Chicago Manual of Style Online

The well-known writing guide to style, usage, and grammar is now accessible online. If you write for a living, consider paying for an annual subscription. It’s currently $39, but with advice covering every aspect of the mechanics of writing, you’re investing in your future as a writer .

11. Separate Your Editing Tasks

If the thought of editing your own work terrifies you, break down the tasks into a series of manageable steps. In the first read-through, check your ideas flow logically. In the next read-through, look at sentence structure, and so on.

Related: 25 Tips for Editing Your First Draft

An editing checklist will help you clean up your writing and spot common mistakes. Here’s an example of a basic checklist to get you started:

The big-picture edit:

• Do you have a strong introduction that hooks the reader?
• Does the content flow logically?
• Does the ending sum up your main points and include a call to action?

The second edit:

• Are there any sections where you repeat your ideas?
• Does each paragraph contain just one topic?
• Are big chunks of text broken up with subheadings and paragraph breaks?
• Do you use data, statistics, and quotations to back up our points?

The third edit:

• Do sentences vary in length?
• Is all spelling and punctuation correct?
• Can you replace weak verbs and adjectives with stronger ones?
• Do you use the passive voice?

Your editing checklist should be tailored to your strengths and weaknesses, and you can adapt it over time to your particular needs as a writer.

Become a Better Editor

Self-editing is a key part of the writing process. It can transform average content into great content that people love to read. As you become more aware of your writing strengths and weaknesses, your editing skills will also improve.

Use these editing tips for your next writing project. Your content will be more enjoyable to read, have more impact on readers, and you’ll increase your marketability as a writer.

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• freelance writing

The Art of Editing: A Guide for Writers

Last updated on December 28th, 2022

Editing is an essential part of the writing process and can make all the difference between a good piece of writing and a great one. In this article, we’ll explore the art of self-editing and provide tips for writers on how to get the most out of the editing process.

From understanding the basics of the editing process to mastering the fundamentals of effective editing, we’ll cover the key elements you need to know to ensure your writing is polished and ready for publication.

The Importance of Self-Editing

Solid editing is the key to excellent writing, and editing your own writing is an essential part of the process. It is important for writers to take the time to read through and edit their work before submitting it for publication.

Editing your work can improve the quality of writing and make it more readable, helping it to stand out from the competition. It can help identify and correct any grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that may have been overlooked. It can also help make a piece of writing more concise and clear by removing unnecessary words or phrases and identifying any areas of confusion or ambiguity. This helps ensure readers understand the intended message and makes a piece more enjoyable and engaging.

By taking the time to re-read your work, you make sure that your writing is polished and professional and meets the target audience’s standards. 

What is Good Editing?

Generally, the process involves multiple steps with the goal of making your writing compelling, readable, engaging, and professional. Here’s an overview of the types of tasks involved:

• Audit the content for organization and flow. This process includes checking for a logical sequence of ideas, transitions between paragraphs, and the piece’s overall structure.
• Review the content for style and tone, including considering the audience and determining if the writing is appropriate for them. It also involves making sure there is consistency throughout the piece and that the style is suitable for the subject matter.
• Check the content for accuracy by verifying facts, checking sources, and double-checking any quotes.
• Fix any grammar and spelling mistakes.
• Review the content for readability. This involves making sure the content is easy to read, the sentences are not too long, the words are not overly complicated, and overall engaging for the reader.

How Often Should You Edit?

When it comes to editing, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The amount of editing required depends on the individual writer and the type of project they are working on. Here are some general guidelines to follow when considering how often you should edit:

• Always edit after completing the first draft. Even if you’ve done a reasonably thorough job of self-editing, giving your work another pass before submitting it for review is important.
• For shorter pieces, such as blog posts, aim to edit the work at least twice before publishing. This will help you catch any errors or typos that may have slipped through the cracks.
• If you’re working on a more extended project, such as a book, it’s important to edit more frequently. It’s best to break your editing down into several passes and take a break between them to give yourself a fresh set of eyes.
• If you need help determining when to edit, try setting deadlines for yourself and breaking the project down into smaller chunks. This will help you stay on track and work more thoroughly.

Ultimately, the key to successful editing is to make sure you’re taking the time to review your work with a critical eye. The more time and effort you put into the process, the better your final product will be.

Are Editing and Proofreading the Same?

Editing and proofreading are two different steps in creating polished, publishable writing. 

Editing is the process of assessing, correcting, and refining the writing content. This could involve reorganizing or rewriting sections or even completely changing the piece’s focus.

Proofreading, on the other hand, is a much more precise process. Once the editing is complete, proofreading involves reading the text to detect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting errors.

While both involve making corrections, they are two distinct processes. It is essential to understand them both to create high-quality and professional writing.

Editing & Proofreading Tips for Writers

Here’s our checklist of the top editing tips for writers to help you get the most out of your work: 

Don’t Try to Edit While You Write

First of all, editing and writing are two very different things. Writing is the creative process of getting your ideas down on paper. Editing is the process of refining and perfecting the written piece. Trying to do both simultaneously can be a recipe for disaster. When writing, focus on getting your ideas down without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Save the editing for later! 

Start Zoomed Out

Begin by focusing on the big picture first. Avoid the temptation to correct minor mistakes immediately, which can lead to overlooking more significant issues and creating more work for yourself in the long run. For example, you may unnecessarily spend time fixing spelling or grammar on sections that you ultimately rework or remove entirely.

On your first pass, look for high-level issues like plot holes and inconsistencies, pacing issues, scenes that need to be developed further, or character arcs and resolutions. Think of it like an ice cream cone: begin with broad structural changes and then narrow to more specific edits.

One way to get a higher-level perspective of your work is using the following tip:

Read Your Work Out Loud

Reading your written work aloud to yourself is a great way to identify errors and awkward phrasing. When you read something out loud, you are forced to slow down and really listen to what you are saying. This allows you to pick up on words that don’t sound quite right, sentences that don’t make sense, or typos that you might have missed.

Additionally, reading aloud can help you get a sense of the rhythm and flow of your writing, allowing you to make adjustments, so your writing is more engaging and effective.

Talking aloud instead of mumbling to yourself or thinking quietly in your head can be beneficial. To make it even more helpful, try talking to someone else; your pet, a significant other, a buddy, or members of a writing group. However, it may be best not to read to other customers in the café or to a captive audience of other people on public transportation!

Get Feedback from Others

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Having a friend, colleague or mentor read your work with a critical eye can provide you with valuable feedback that you may not have noticed yourself. Please encourage them to be honest and make suggestions for improvement. Be grateful and open and take all feedback constructively. Think of it as an opportunity to learn and grow as a writer. And don’t forget to say thanks by returning the favor somehow! 

Shifting from Passive to Active Voice

Active voice is a writing style in which the subject of the sentence performs the action. For example, instead of writing “the ball was thrown by the boy,” you would write “the boy threw the ball.” When editing, check for any sentences written in passive voice and to rewrite them in active voice. 

Active voice is generally preferred because it gives the reader a more precise and direct understanding of the sentence. It is more concise and is often perceived as more natural and engaging, which can help make writing more exciting for readers. Active voice also tends to be easier to read and understand, making it more enjoyable for the reader.

Cut Out Unnecessary Words and Phrases

Focus on getting your point across with less. Every word should have a purpose, and if a sentence doesn’t contribute to the overall point of the paragraph, prune it. Even if a sentence is well-crafted, it should be removed if it doesn’t have a purpose.

Be ruthless when editing, and don’t be afraid to make bold cuts. Deleting your writing is one of the most challenging things to do as a writer, but it is essential to great writing. 

It’s also important to vary the length of your sentences. Too many short sentences can make writing seem choppy and disjointed. Conversely, too many long sentences can make writing seem overly complex and convoluted. Varying sentence length adds flow and interest to your writing, making it easier to read. Pay attention to the structure of each sentence and make sure the point is easy to understand. 

Reduce Adverbs

Adverbs can weaken your writing by making it overly wordy and indirect. They often require extra words to express the same concept, making your writing sound clunky and awkward. Additionally, many adverbs are vague and don’t give the reader an exact image of what you’re trying to convey. Writing without adverbs can improve your writing to be more precise and clear.

Show & Tell

Showing involves using sensory details, metaphors, vivid language, and other literary devices to create a clear image, while Telling is a straightforward, factual account of what happened. Showing is often preferred to telling because it engages the reader and invites them to form their own interpretations. It also helps to create a more natural and immersive experience for the reader, allowing them to “see” the story unfold in their mind’s eye.

Sometimes you’ll have to recount what happened to the reader for context or framing, but try to show them instead, so they get there on their own, which is more interesting and dynamic.

Check for Grammar and Spelling Errors

Making sure your post is free of grammar and spelling errors will help you ensure that you are putting your best foot forward. Taking the time will give your readers a better experience and help you make a more professional impression. One option to make this process more efficient is to use an online tool such as Grammarly to help you identify areas that need improvement.

A reminder about spellcheckers: they may flag typos and incorrect spelling, but they generally won’t detect when you’ve used the wrong word. For example, if you wrote “there” instead of “their,” the spellcheck won’t pick up on it because “there” is still a word, even though it wasn’t what you meant to write.

Use a Style Guide

A style guide is a set of rules and guidelines for a particular type of writing, such as fiction, journalism, or technical writing. Following the guidelines of your chosen style guide will help ensure consistency throughout your work.

Having a style guide can help make the writing process simpler and more efficient. They can provide helpful information on formatting, grammar, and punctuation. For example, if you are writing a novel, the guide might provide guidance on the correct way to format dialogue, how to punctuate dialogue tags, and how to structure chapters.

Get Professional Assistance

A professional editor can be an excellent resource for ensuring your work is polished and ready to go. Whether you’re writing a book, a blog post, or a business proposal, an editor can help you fine-tune your writing and make sure it is as close to perfect as possible.

Professional editors can also help with proofreading, content editing, and even rewriting sections that need extra attention. With their help, you can be sure that your work is top-notch and will impact the people you are trying to reach.

Bonus: Take Breaks

Editing can be an exhausting process, so don’t be afraid to take breaks. Step away from your work and come back with fresh eyes. This will help you notice mistakes you might have missed during a long editing session. Taking short breaks throughout your process can also help maintain your focus and enthusiasm.

Finally, take your time and be patient. Editing is a skill and a process that requires practice and dedication and is an essential part of writing. It can be a daunting task, but following the tips in this guide can make your work shine. By taking the time to edit your work, you will be able to produce a final product that you can be proud of. You can become an efficient editor and a more confident writer with practice and patience.

Daniel Wainwright

Daniel is a writer with over 10 years of experience crafting compelling content for brands both big and small. When he’s not busy writing, Daniel can be found spending time with his wife and young son, and digging through the stacks in in bookstores and thrift shops.

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Last updated on May 05, 2023

Types of Editing: An Inside Look at What Editors Do

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Martin Cavannagh

Head of Content at Reedsy, Martin has spent over eight years helping writers turn their ambitions into reality. As a voice in the indie publishing space, he has written for a number of outlets and spoken at conferences, including the 2024 Writers Summit at the London Book Fair.

Literary editors are a writer's best friend — they have the skills, experience, and knowledge to take your manuscript to the next level. However, not all editors do the same job and it's important to understand what type of editing your project needs at any given stage.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the different types of editing and offer insights from Reedsy's deep roster of expert manuscript editors . 

5 common types of editing in publishing:

1. Editorial assessment

2. developmental editing, 3. copy editing, 4. proofreading, 5. fact-checking.

An editorial assessment is often the first piece of professional help a manuscript will receive. Your editor will offer you some broad, insightful feedback on major strengths and weaknesses in your plot, characters, or structure.

“In an editorial assessment, the author wouldn’t receive comments and example rewrites in the manuscript,” says genre fiction editor Leah Brown . “Instead, they would receive a letter that focuses on the broad strokes. An editorial assessment is best for an author who is early in the process and whose manuscript may be messier.”

Seeking out an editorial assessment early on will make the job of a developmental and copy edit later down the line much easier. Similarly, they can help you determine whether your work is ready for querying before you contact any literary agents. 

What kind of editing does your book need?

Takes one minute!

Developmental editing — also called content or substantive editing — involves an editor providing detailed feedback on “big-picture” issues. They’ll refine your ideas, shape your narrative, and help you fix any major plot or character inconsistencies to tell you if any elements of your story just don’t work. It’s similar to an editorial assessment but contains much more detail.

“For a developmental edit, I look at some of the larger questions,” says editor Mary-Theresa Hussey . “Why are the characters behaving as they do? What are their motivations? Do these scenes add to the overall story? What is your underlying theme, and how does it change?” 

Your editor will return an annotated manuscript, a marked-up version of the original manuscript with specific suggestions for each issue, and an editorial report. This is essentially a summary of the raw feedback left on the manuscript. 

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Copy editing is the next step after you're certain you've solved your book's big-picture issues. An editor will read your work on the lookout for anything that makes it less readable, like word repetition or character inconsistencies. This type is also known as mechanical or line editing, depending on its particular application.

“A copy editor’s job is to bring the author’s completed manuscript to a more professional level ,” says editor Chersti Nieveen . “A copy edit helps create the most readable version of your book, improving clarity, coherency, consistency, and correctness. The goal is to bridge any remaining gaps between the author’s intent and the reader’s understanding.”

What elements do copy editors consider?

A copy editor examines and corrects the following elements in your work:

• Capitalization
• Word usage and repetition
• Dialogue tags
• Usage of numbers or numerals
• POV/tense (to fix any unintentional shifts)
• Descriptive inconsistencies (character descriptions, locations, blocking, etc.)

It’d be pretty distracting to your reader if you constantly misplace the comma next to quotemarks  or misspell the word “restaurant.” Copy editing ensures that errors like these don’t happen, so your writing is as strong as possible, and your reader remains 100% focused on the story. They can also help make sure that you’re using the right terminology and that you’re using inclusive language in your writing.

Is line editing the same as copy editing? 

People often use "line editing" and "copy editing" interchangeably — but they’re not exactly the same thing. To clarify: line editing focuses specifically on the content and flow of your prose . It’s also called 'stylistic editing' since it concentrates on style rather than mechanics.

In other words, it still falls under the umbrella of copy editing but is more precise. While a full copy edit looks at all of the elements listed in the bullets above, a line edit would only consider word usage, POV/tense, and descriptive inconsistencies and provide more detailed suggestions on strengthening the prose.

If you feel incredibly confident about the mechanics of your prose but less so about its flow and style, you might request that your copy editor focus their energy on line editing alone. After all, a proofreader can always catch any minor errors that slip through the cracks.

And speaking of proofreaders...

Proofreading is the last major stage of the editing process. Proofreaders are eagle-eyed inspectors who ensure no spelling or grammar errors make it to the final version of your work . 

Back in the day, an impression of a metal plate would be created as “proof” of a fully formatted book . But before that happened, it would be triple-checked by the proofreader, who made sure the publisher didn’t churn out thousands of copies of a novel called A Tale of Tow Cities .

Even with modern digital typesetting, proofreaders still often work from physical proofs, often using a language of their own , as they go. They’ll watch out for:

• Inconsistencies in spelling and style;
• Inconsistencies in layout and typography;
• Confusing or awkward page and word breaks;
• Incorrect captioning on any illustrations and page numbers in the contents.

Although most issues will be resolved by this stage, proofreaders still scrutinize the text for anything previous edits might have missed. Hopefully, they don’t find much, but better safe than sorry!

The style sheet

When working with a proofreader, you should provide them with a style sheet that notifies them of any unusual spellings or styles in your manuscript — for example, if you’ve written a second-world novel and have invented some words. Otherwise, they’ll read your manuscript “blind,” which is still pretty effective but may not incorporate every little detail of your work.

Once they’re done, your proofreader will return a marked-up document for you to revise one final time. After making those changes, you should be ready to send your manuscript into production, either by working with a typesetter or using a free tool like Reedsy Studio  to export your ebook.

No matter how thoroughly you research your book, it can still end up with informational inconsistencies — and that's a fact (pun fully intended). Developmental and copy editors can help with this, but at the end of the day, it’s not their responsibility to fact-check.

If you have a lot of niche information in your book, and especially if it’s a topic you’ve never written on before — you might consider getting a designated fact-checker to comb through it. They’ll note all the factual references in your book, then carefully confirm them via external sources; if they find any inaccuracies, they’ll alert you immediately. 

This type of editing is particularly crucial if you’re writing nonfiction (and dedicated nonfiction editors are often experienced fact-checkers too ). But getting a trained eye on your manuscript can also be very helpful for historical fiction and hard sci-fi works.

Of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your book is the same — a quick self-edit won’t be enough if you want to be a successful author (whatever that means to you). An outside perspective from a professional editor, will help you lay the foundation the right way. With that in mind, you’re ready to go forth and conquer the world — the world of editing!

To learn how to find an editor to work on your book, proceed to the next post in this series.

3 responses

Emily Bradley says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

A good editor would have caught the fact that that those are lilac blossoms over the book, not lavender. :)

29/06/2019 – 15:50

Are these out of order? Would you get copy-editing before line editing?

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

01/07/2019 – 09:04

In terms of the order in which you'd get them — you're right that you'd look at line editing before a strict copy-edit, though realistically a copyeditor in publishing would be doing both, in a way. We'll have a look at swapping these around just for clarity. Thanks, Tom!

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Editing Tips for Writers

by Melissa Donovan | Oct 27, 2022 | Writing Tips | 46 comments

Editing tips for writers.

If you’re the token writer at your office, among your friends, or in your family, then you’re probably asked on a regular basis to edit, review, or proofread written documents.

Academic essays, business letters, and resumes will land on your desk with the word “HELP!” scrawled across the top.

Or maybe you’re ready to get serious about your writing, and you want to learn best practices for editing so you can clean up your work before sending it to beta readers, submitting to agents, or publishing.

Editing Tips

I spend a lot of time editing other people’s writing and self-editing my own work. In fact, I spend more time revising and proofreading than I do writing. So I thought I’d share a few of my favorite editing tips:

1. Accept Favor Requests for Editing

When a friend, family member, or coworker asks you to look at a draft, do it. Even if you’re busy, even if you don’t feel like it or have your own projects to write and edit, take it on. The more editing you do, the better you get at it, and that means you become better at editing your own work, too. Never pass up an opportunity for practice!

2. Read it First

Before you uncap your red pen, give the piece a quick read. If you edit on the first pass, you might have to go back and undo some of your markups or revisions. This can happen because you haven’t picked up the style and flow yet, because you don’t know where the piece is headed with regard to context, or because you’re focused on finding mistakes instead of understanding the material. If at all possible, read it first, and then go back and start editing.

3. Are You Wearing Your Editing Hat or Proofreading Hat?

When you edit, make sure editing is really what you’re doing. In other words, be aware that editing is not scouring the text for typos and stray punctuation marks. Editing is when we strengthen story, sentences, and paragraphs. Proofreading comes later. That’s not to say we don’t do a little proofing while editing or that we don’t do a little editing while proofing. I know I do. However, I always do a full revision focused on editing and another on proofreading. For more complex pieces, I do multiple edits and proofs.

4. Edit On-Screen and Track Changes

Many writers and editors swear by the printed page. But that’s a messy and inefficient way to edit. If you start editing on-screen, you’ll adjust to the new format and soon find it’s much easier than marking up print. If you’re making big revisions and you’re worried about losing the original text, use Microsoft Word’s feature, Track Changes, which does just what you’d expect — it tracks all the changes you make as you edit. Then you can go through and review every edit and accept or reject those changes individually or collectively. This is also a great way to edit twice — once to make the changes and again to approve them.

5. If You’re Not Sure, Look it Up (and Know What You Don’t Know)

Your greatest wisdom as an editor is knowing what you don’t know. Having resources in your arsenal is one thing. Using them is something else entirely. Don’t be lazy! Remember that every time you look something up, you learn something new and expand your writing skills . Plus, the more you look things up, the less you’ll need to look them up in the future. Eventually, they become a natural part of your writing process.

6. Keep a Grammar Manual and Style Guide Handy

When you’re proofreading and editing, you need to be meticulous. Don’t cut corners. If you’re not sure about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or context, you need to be able to open up a grammar manual or a style guide, so make sure you have the right resources handy. Be vigilant, be correct, and use good judgment, keeping in mind that sometimes it’s best to bend the rules, but only if you know what the rules are and why you’re breaking them.

7. Run Spell-Check and Grammar-Check First

Before you start editing, run spell-check and use your word processing software’s grammar checking tool (if it has one). Automated checkers don’t catch everything, but they can catch a lot of the most obvious mistakes, and that means you’ll have more time and brain energy for manual editing. Also, use the find-and-replace feature, which allows you to quickly find or replace a single error multiple times. For example, many people are still in the habit of using a double space after a period. I always do a find-and-replace to replace all those double spaces with the modern standard: single spaces after every period or terminal punctuation mark.

8. Read Slowly and Out Loud

The most crucial aspect of proofreading and editing is reviewing every single word and examining the written work at the word, sentence, and paragraph levels. You should be able to assess every document or manuscript in its entirety to check for readability, organization, and flow. This means you’ll have to go over each piece multiple times. To separate yourself from the content so you can better evaluate the writing, read slowly and read out loud. You’ll catch a lot of minor mistakes and typos this way.

9. Listen for Wording and Rhythm

Editing involves more than checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. When you read the piece aloud, pay attention to the rhythm. Does it flow smoothly? Do the sentences alternate in length or is there an excess of short (or long) sentences that have a droning rhythm? Break up some of those longer sentences and join some of the smaller sentences together to give the writing better rhythm and more musicality.

10. Pay Attention to Formatting

Formatting is actually separate from editing. This involves things like font (size, face, and other formatting options, such as bold or italics), paragraph and line spacing, and indentations. Chapter titles and subheadings, for example, should have the same font and spacing. Citations should be formatted with consistency (and preferably, adhering to a style guide).

BONUS TIP: Review to Perfection

I like to follow a five-step process for editing:

• Read the entire text.
• Second pass focuses on substance. Does the piece need deep changes, like repairs to plot holes?
• Third review focuses on word choice, sentence structure, and readability.
• Fourth pass is proofreading (checking for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and typos). This is where I read out loud, slowly.
• Final review and polish.

I repeat step five until I can’t find anything to improve. This is a rough guideline for editing. Some pieces need more; others need less. I might do one pass focused on dialogue. You’ll find that every piece of writing has its own needs. Be flexible so you can meet those needs and produce polished work.

Good Luck with Your Self-Editing!

If you have any editing tips of your own, please share by leaving a comment.

46 Comments

I chuckled at the phrase “token writer”.

What? One space instead of two spaces after the period is the cool thing to do now? I am so yesterday. In fact, I am still doing that while typing out this comment.

It took me a couple of months to get used to typing one space instead of two spaces after each period. But it makes sense. I mean, you don’t need to set off sentences with a period, a capital letter, AND an extra space. Anyway, it takes some getting used to…but it can be done! Overcome the habit!

Ditto the “token writer” phrase.

This is really useful. I’ll be printing out and adding it to my notebook. Yes, I do like a few things in hard copy.

@Kevin – When I was switching from typewriter to word processing the explanation I was given about why only one space instead of two was not a trend thing but had to do with word processing having scalable fonts whereas on a typewriter that metal slug is what it is. But it still took almost 2 years to retrain my thumbs not to hit the spacebar twice.

Hi Deb! I hope NaNo’s going well. From the sound of your Facebook updates, you’re on track. I didn’t know the switch to a single space had to do with scalable fonts, but that totally makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

I;ve just done that. Well, not printed it, but saved it for reference. Great post.

This is very helpful in many ways. I think I’ve heard or read all these tips at one time or another, but I’ve never seen them all in one place, so succinctly.

This is one to keep and savor.

I kind of mess up when it comes to editing. I don’t know the proper approach. Thanks for providing me with directions here. 🙂

My pleasure! There are a variety of editing strategies that you can apply. These are the ones that have worked for me or that I’ve heard work well for other writers and editors. Good luck editing!

Melissa – You mentioned the one space thing ages ago and I still haven’t managed to get into the way of doing it. But I have a 24 year habit to break.

I’m hopeless at editing my blog. If I type it in Word first, I get all those horrid characters in the html. Wish there was a way to spell check directly on your blog post.

Yep, it’s a tricky habit to adopt after typing two spaces for so many years. Don’t you use WordPress? Mine puts a red underline beneath words that are spelled incorrectly. Still, I find the best way to edit and proof is to simply read over each post a couple of times before publishing. Sometimes I even go back and proofread posts that I’ve already published, and I do occasionally find typos that need fixing on posts that are already live!

Great post. However, I do think it’s important for writers who are looking to get published professionally hire an editor and/or proofreader to catch any mistakes or wordy passages.

I agree for the most part, but it depends on the writer and the publication they’re targeting. Some writers have outstanding grammar skills, and any mistakes will be caught by the publisher before it goes to print. I wouldn’t recommend a writer with excellent technical skills hire a proofreader before submitting a short story to a lit mag, for example. Usually lit mag editors will clean up any typos. But lots of writers are not focused on grammar so they never gain strength in that area, and that’s fine, but they should definitely think about hiring some help. Also, young and new writers can benefit immensely from working with an editor/proofreader and studying to improve their grammar skills.

“As close to perfect as possible” is probably the best way to say it. When one is satisfactorily content, then it is time to hit “publish”.

I’ve heard so many writers and artists say “It’s never really done…” I think many rely on intuition to “just know” when it’s time to share the work.

Very useful article.

My “inner editor” is stopping me from writing my novel! I have no problems with the story line and/or the characters but my grammar skills have suffered over the years. How will I be able to proofread my work, if I don’t know how to use proper grammar or punctuation?

Hi Phyllis. May I suggest you take a little time to revisit grammar? If you strongly feel that grammar is a big weakness for you, then the only sensible recourse is to brush up on it. I recommend The Elements of Style as a starter and then Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing , which is packed with awesome grammar in an easy-to-digest narrative.

Many writers don’t edit as they write. You can try writing a little more freely, and worry about revisions and editing later. Good luck!

Hello, in what sequence should I put the following verbs with an adverb? Adverb first and then verbs?

She never could have?

She could never have?

And is it still true that in formal writing you must never write could’ve?

Many thanks!

There might be some wiggle room with this one, but I would go with “She never could have.” It sounds more natural. I would refrain from using contractions (like “could’ve”) in formal writing, such as academic or business writing. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips. They are wonderful.

You’re welcome!

Great tips…comes at a much needed time for me! Retweeting you on my twitter…my fellow writer followers will be happy to have the advice! 🙂

Thanks, Courtney!

Great post, Melissa.

I find the frequency of my editing on-screen as I write to be increasing. It’s almost as if I can recognize a mistake more quickly than I could when this whole writing thing started. But, I still go through the steps you’ve outlined. However, the printed copy edits continue to be an integral part of the process. This is when I sit and read aloud, perhaps three or four times, using a red pen – as if I’m editing for another person – before heading back to the keyboard with my now-bloody print.

I never do print edits for short pieces like blog posts or web copy, but for a book-length project, I have to proof on paper.

I often change the font and size of my text so even if I’m proofing on screen, it tricks my eye into seeing it as something new!

That’s a very good idea. I’ll try that on my next essay.

I like that! It’s clever.

Sometimes pushing the delete button on your words is hard, so every time I start a new round of edits I copy the whole document and paste it into another word file. Then I can delete away and know that if I change my mind my old file is still there.

I do likewise, Jessica. After writing the first draft, I’d save it with the name, First Draft. Then I’d copy-paste it to another word document where I’d work on the second draft, save it with the name Second Draft, and the process goes for the next drafts.

Me too, but only for major edits and rewrites. Then I go through and clean them out every couple of years.

Good ideas, like the one about looking at a piece in a different font or size, got to try that. I find I edit a lot for trite words or phrases that make writing seem stale. “inform your work” is one I jumped on yesterday. “Platform” is starting to get a little rank around the edges as is “lean in”. Our culture goes so fast, stuff ages quickly.

Yes, words and phrases do get stale.

Loved the post. I have to admit, I’m still a hold-out on the double-space after the comma. It just looks weird otherwise. Good to see the ol’ Oxford comma used here. Thought I was the only one who used it any more.

I’m the opposite — the double space now looks weird to me because I’ve gotten used to the single space. Most editors are going to remove it anyway. I’d say it took me about a month to adapt to the single space and another couple months before it became habitual. I’m a big supporter of the Oxford comma simply because it’s necessary sometimes for clarity; therefore, it should be used all the time for consistency.

I just discovered your site, and I am so glad that I did! I am an aspiring author working on my debut novel. This is great information. I’ve just subscribed to your blog. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now. I have a review blog for debut authors. I look forward to seeing your other posts.

Thanks for your kind words, Rebecca! I’m glad you’re finding the information here useful. I wish you the best of luck with your blog and your book.

Another double-spacer after the end of a sentence here (as far as I know it is less that it is “standard” and more a case of what works best for certain media–eg. a proportional, serifed font looks better with a double space). Consistency is key whatever format you use.

Otherwise, a great list. And I agree, for most short pieces, editing on screen is the way to go. For anything book-length, I would still rather work with red-pen and a printout.

I work mostly with short pieces, which is why I rarely print anything. I don’t even have a printer hooked up in my office! I’m all about the red pen when I’m editing a book-length work!

Thanks again, I hate editing!!!

You’re not alone. I don’t mind editing (sometimes I enjoy it) but I know of a lot of writers who don’t like editing at all.

I thought there was some great advice here.

Another tip I often use is text-to-speech programs to read your work back – it’s a surefire way to catch typos and mistakes you would otherwise miss. I find it helps with sentence structure and even rhythm/pacing, even though the text-to-speech technology can do a pretty bad job replicating either.

Great tip, S.D. I’ve heard text-to-speech still has problems, but it sounds like an excellent way to listen to your text in order to get a fresh perspective. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hi Melissa,

You are the single most important person who has improved my writing immensely, and in doing so, made my life much less stressful. I do quote you on my website and share your online tips, your book, and of course, writingforward.com. I have been a member of your website for at least 2 years. Thank you for sharing your writing skills with us. Karen

Thank you so much for your kind words, Karen. Your feedback means a lot!

Aesculus once said, “We are all fools. The smart person is the one who knows that he is a fool and takes account of it”. I think this is good advice for we fools.

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5 Steps for Editing Your Own Writing

Like most newspaper reporters, I got into the biz because a)  I love writing and b) I’m pretty good at it. But it’s a sobering profession. You file your masterpiece, only to find your editor thinks it’s two dozen “tinks” shy of publishable. (No lie: One editor refers to the process as “killing your babies.”)

Repeat this scenario a couple hundred times, and you’ll find you’ve grown some thick skin. You’ve also gotten pretty darn good at self-editing, so as to avoid the aforementioned scenario as much as possible.

So, I’m here to impart some wisdom on the art of quickly perfecting your own work—how to hone, trim, and morph clumsy words and phrases into a clear, concise message that will wow your audience. It could be a company memo, a PowerPoint presentation, an email, or a report—but no matter the medium, these quick editing skills will always come in handy.

Some other bonuses of good self-editing skills: People are less likely to misunderstand you, and bosses and peers will pay more attention to the meat of your message.

So here we go. Let’s say you’re working on a personal assessment for your annual performance review . You've written the first draft, but you want to make sure it’s in perfect condition before you submit it. Here’s your game plan:

1.   Print Out Your Work

Always do this.  Always . It’s a pain, but when you’re talking performance reviews, that 20-yard hassle of a walk to the printer could mean the difference between a 4% or a 5% raise.

Here's why: As any writer or editor will tell you, critiquing someone else's work is much easier than deconstructing your own, because outside eyes bring a fresh perspective. To approach your own work critically, you need to simulate this "outsider" perspective by viewing it in a form other than the one you wrote it in.

If you typed it, print it out. Give it a quick read-through, then wield your red pen and start slashing. (Ruthlessly. More on that below.) If you hand-wrote the first draft of your evaluation, type it up, print it, and analyze. That’s right—either way, you should still be heading over to the printer.

2.  Take a Break

If you’re on deadline and this step is a luxury, proceed to No. 3. But if you do have a few minutes to spare, putting a literal distance between you and your work creates an emotional distance as well. When you come back to it with fresh eyes, you're more likely to spot awkward wording, unnecessary phrasing, and plain ol’ mistakes. So take a stroll, go to the bathroom, chat with a co-worker. If you can let it simmer overnight, that’s best of all. Then you can be more ruthless with your edits.

3. Read it Out Loud

The best writing sounds smooth —almost like you’re speaking, without getting colloquial. So actually listening to your written syntax is one of the best ways you can catch areas with jangling phrasing. Read your work out loud and change anything that doesn’t make sense or that you stumble over. And don't be afraid to use contractions—that's how us non-robots talk, isn't it? (Imagine that last sentence without contractions. Now you see what I mean.)

4. Pretend You’re the Intended Audience

Now that you've read and re-read your document, it's time for some editing role play. Keeping with the performance review example, read the document again, this time as if you're the boss lady . Is it so verbose that you're getting bored by page two? Or does it flow easily and leave you with a "Wow, she deserves a raise!" impression? What stands out to you most? Jot down your thoughts, make changes, and move on to the last step.

5.  Be Ruthless

The final step is to edit your work down. Yes, chop some of those words, sentences, and paragraphs. Like crazy. I know, I know—killing babies. But this will help make sure that the true meat of your piece is what shines.

If you need a little help with this, here are some tips:

Keep Paragraphs Short

Three to four sentences is more than enough to get to the point quickly and succinctly.

Reduce Each Sentence to its Essential Parts

A well-defined subject, strong verb, and object.

Avoid the Overuse of Subordinate Clauses

Quick little grammar refresher: A subordinate clause (also known as a dependent clause) has a subject and verb but can't stand alone as a sentence. So let's take this sentence that might appear in your personal assessment:

"When staff fatigue was high during the fourth quarter because of lower earnings than projected, I led an initiative to improve morale."

Let's rework it a bit, make it more straightforward.

"I led an initiative to tackle staff fatigue and improve morale in the wake of disappointing fourth-quarter earnings."

Nix Adverbs and Adjectives as Often as Possible

On your printout, mark through every adjective and adverb you see, and then add back the ones that you think are absolutely necessary. When in doubt, find a verb that says it better.

Infuse Opinionated Language With Authority

During my freshman year of college, I got a B on a kick-ass paper. Upset, I asked my professor to explain his (obviously flawed) grading system. He said I was downgraded because I repeatedly used phrases like "seems to be" and "it appears." When you make a point, he said, throw yourself behind it. Don't give the impression that you're not sure you fully support your own argument .

That advice stuck with me, and you should pay attention to it, too, especially when your career is in play. Don't weaken your argument with wishy-washy sentences that start with "I believe," "In my opinion," and "You may disagree, but... " You'll see the difference it makes.

Self-editing is a tough skill to develop, but it's one that can only help your career. It ensures your writing puts your best foot forward, even when you're charming self isn't there to do the talking.

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How to Write a Story: A Guide for Creative Writers

• by Andrea Feccomandi
• August 27, 2024

There’s nothing quite like the joy of bringing a story to life, watching your characters grow and your world take shape. Storytelling isn’t just about writing; it’s about connecting with others through your words .

But to do that, you need to know the basic elements—like characters, plot, and setting. Think of these as the building blocks of your story. Without them, your story can’t stand strong.

This guide on how to write a story will take you through each step, making the process manageable and even enjoyable, whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve.

Story Meaning in Creative Writing

Let’s start with the definition of a story in creative writing.

STORY DEFINITION IN CREATIVE WRITING What is a Story? A story is a structured narrative that goes beyond a mere sequence of events. In creative writing, a story is an intentionally crafted experience designed to guide the reader through a progression of events and situations. It involves the creation of a fictional world, the introduction of characters, and the development of scenarios that lead to meaningful change or development in those characters.

How to Write a Story: Key Components of a Story

To understand how to write a story, you first need to grasp its key components: characters, setting, plot, conflict, and theme.

Characters are the heart of your story. They are the people, creatures, or beings that the reader follows. Think of them as the players in a game. Without characters, there’s no one to move through the story, no one to experience the events you’ve created.

Each character should have a purpose , desires , and challenges . For example, in a mystery story , your main character might be a detective determined to solve a crime. Their actions and choices drive the plot forward .

The setting is the world where your story takes place. It’s the backdrop against which your characters act. This could be a bustling city, a quiet village, or even a distant planet.

The setting influences the mood of your story and can even affect the actions of your characters . For instance, a story set in a haunted house might feel eerie and suspenseful, while a story set on a sunny beach might feel light and carefree.

The plot is the sequence of events that make up your story. It’s what happens to your characters as they move through the setting. A strong plot has a clear beginning, middle, and end. It might start with a problem or goal, build up as the characters face challenges, and end with a resolution.

Imagine a plot as a roadmap. It shows the direction your story will take , guiding the characters from the start to the finish line.

Conflict is what gives your story tension and drama . It’s the struggle between opposing forces that keeps the reader engaged. Conflict can be external, like a character fighting against another character or a natural disaster, or internal, like a character struggling with their own fears or doubts.

In a romance story , the conflict might be the obstacles that keep two characters apart. In a thriller, it could be the protagonist’s battle against a dangerous enemy.

Finally, the theme is the underlying message or lesson of your story . It’s what you want the reader to take away after they’ve finished reading.

The theme is often subtle, woven into the characters’ actions and the plot. For example, in a story about friendship, the theme might be the importance of loyalty and trust.

To survive, you must tell stories. Umberto Eco , The Island of the Day Before

Types of Stories

Stories come in many shapes and sizes. Understanding the type of story you want to write can help shape your approach. Different genres and formats offer different challenges and opportunities.

Genres like romance, science fiction, fantasy , and horror each have their own conventions and expectations . For example, a romance story usually focuses on relationships and emotions, while a science fiction story might explore futuristic technology or alien worlds. Knowing your genre helps you meet readers’ expectations while allowing you to play with the boundaries of that genre.

The format of your story also matters. A short story is brief, often focusing on a single event or moment in a character’s life. It requires concise writing and a tight plot. A novel , on the other hand, gives you more space to develop characters, explore subplots, and build a complex world. A novella falls somewhere in between, offering more depth than a short story but requiring more focus than a novel.

Choosing the right genre and format is like choosing the right tool for a job. It helps you focus your ideas and guides your storytelling . Whether you’re writing a quick, impactful short story or a sprawling epic novel, understanding these basics will set you on the right path.

How to Write a Story: Developing an Idea

The first step in learning how to write a story is developing a solid idea . This process involves finding inspiration and then refining that inspiration into something you can work with.

Finding Inspiration

Inspiration for a story can come from anywhere. It might spark from a conversation you overhear, a place you visit, or even a memory.

To find inspiration, start by observing the world around you . Pay attention to the small details—the way the light hits a building, the expressions people wear on their faces, or the rhythm of a crowded street. These observations can serve as the seeds for your story.

Reading widely also fuels inspiration. Explore different genres, styles, and authors. Notice how they craft their stories, how they build characters, and how they create tension. As you read, ask yourself what you would do differently. This can help you generate new ideas and find your unique voice.

Brainstorming is another effective way to develop story ideas. Sit down with a notebook and write down anything that comes to mind, no matter how vague or disconnected. You might start with a single word, a character, or a situation. Don’t worry about making sense at this stage. The goal is to let your imagination run free and gather raw material.

Refining Your Idea

Once you have a list of potential ideas, it’s time to refine them. Broad ideas often need narrowing down to become workable. Start by asking yourself some key questions : What is the main conflict in this idea? Who are the characters involved? Where and when does the story take place? These questions help you focus your idea and give it structure.

Originality is crucial in refining your idea. While it’s fine to take inspiration from existing stories, your version should bring something new to the table. Avoid clichés and overused tropes. Instead, think about how you can twist the familiar into something fresh . For example, if your idea involves a classic hero’s journey , consider how you might change the setting or alter the character’s motivation to make the story uniquely yours.

Adding personal touches also strengthens your story idea. Draw from your experiences, emotions, and perspectives. These elements give your story authenticity and depth. For instance, if you’re writing a story about overcoming fear, reflect on a time when you faced something scary. This personal connection will resonate with readers.

For example, let’s say you start with a basic concept: a person who wants to escape their small town . To refine this into a workable story, you might decide that the protagonist is a young woman who dreams of becoming an artist. The conflict arises because her family expects her to take over the family business. The setting could be a rural town that feels isolated and stifling. This simple idea now has direction, characters, and a central conflict, making it a strong foundation for your story.

How to Write a Story: Creating Compelling Characters

In learning how to write a story, creating compelling characters is one of the most crucial steps. Characters are the driving force behind your story . Readers connect with them , root for them, and follow them on their journey. To make your characters stand out, they need to be relatable, complex, and dynamic.

Character Development

Character development begins with understanding who your character is at their core . Think of your character as a real person. They should have goals, motivations, and flaws. Goals drive your character forward , giving them something to strive for. For example, a character might want to win a race, solve a mystery, or find love. These goals give your story direction.

Motivations explain why your character wants to achieve their goals . They add depth and make your character’s actions believable. If your character wants to win a race, their motivation might be to prove their worth, escape a difficult past, or fulfill a promise. Understanding these motivations helps you write actions and decisions that feel true to the character .

Flaws make your character human . No one is perfect, and your characters shouldn’t be either. Flaws could be anything from stubbornness to insecurity to a quick temper. These flaws create tension and conflict in your story, making it more engaging. For instance, a character who is too stubborn might refuse help when they need it, leading to further challenges.

Character Arcs

A character arc describes how a character changes throughout your story . A well-written arc adds depth and makes your story more satisfying. There are different types of character arcs, and the one you choose depends on your story.

A positive arc shows a character growing or improving . They start with a flaw or a false belief, but through the events of the story, they learn, change, and become better. For example, a character who begins as selfish might learn the value of helping others.

A negative arc shows a character’s downfall . Instead of growing, the character makes poor choices or refuses to change, leading to their decline. This arc can be powerful in tragedies or dark stories.

A flat arc involves a character who doesn’t change much but influences the world around them . This type of character often has strong beliefs or principles and helps others grow. Think of a mentor figure who stays consistent while guiding the protagonist.

Dialogue and Voice

Dialogue is a key tool for revealing character . It’s not just about what your characters say, but how they say it . To write authentic dialogue , consider each character’s background, personality, and current emotional state. A well-educated character might speak formally, while a teenager might use slang or short sentences.

Differentiating your characters through their speech patterns is crucial. It helps readers instantly recognize who is speaking, even without dialogue tags. For example, one character might be sarcastic, always making jokes, while another might be straightforward and serious. These differences make your characters more distinct and memorable.

Voice is another important aspect of a character. It refers to the unique way a character views and describes the world. A character’s voice should match their personality and background. For instance, a cynical character might describe things with a negative twist, while an optimistic character sees the bright side. This consistency in voice strengthens your character and makes them feel real.

How to Write a Story: Crafting the Plot

Learning how to write a story involves mastering the art of plot crafting. The plot is the backbone of your story. It guides your characters from beginning to end and keeps your readers engaged. To create a strong plot, you need to understand plot structure, pacing, tension, and the use of subplots.

Plot Structure

Plot structure is the framework that shapes your story . It provides a roadmap for your characters’ journey. Two common plot structures are the three-act structure and the Hero’s Journey.

In the three-act structure , the story is divided into three parts: setup, conflict, and resolution. The setup introduces the characters, the world, and the main problem. The conflict is the core of the story where challenges build, leading to the climax. The climax is the peak of the story, where everything comes to a head. After the climax, the resolution ties up loose ends and concludes the story.

The Hero’s Journey is another popular structure. It follows a character (the Hero ) who starts in their ordinary world but is soon called to an adventure. Along the way, they face trials, make allies, and confront their greatest challenge. After overcoming this challenge, the hero returns home, transformed by their experiences .

Both structures provide clear steps to follow, making it easier to organize your story. Whether you use the three-act structure or the Hero’s Journey, the goal is to create a plot that feels complete and satisfying.

Pacing and Tension

Pacing is how you control the speed of your story . It’s important to maintain a balance between fast-paced action and slower, more reflective moments. If your story moves too quickly, readers might miss important details. If it moves too slowly, they might lose interest.

To maintain good pacing, vary the length of your scenes . Short, quick scenes can build excitement and move the story forward. Longer scenes can slow things down and give readers a chance to catch their breath. Also, consider where you place important events. Spacing out major plot points keeps readers engaged and eager to see what happens next.

Tension is what keeps readers on the edge of their seats . It’s the sense that something important is at stake and that the outcome is uncertain. To build tension, gradually increase the obstacles your characters face. Start with smaller challenges, then escalate to bigger, more threatening situations. For example, in a mystery story, the tension might rise as the detective uncovers clues, leading to a final confrontation with the villain.

Subplots are secondary stories that run alongside your main plot. They add depth and complexity to your narrative, making it richer and more engaging. Subplots can explore side characters, develop themes, or provide a different perspective on the main story.

When creating subplots, ensure they complement the main plot . They should not distract from the primary narrative but instead enhance it. For example, if your main plot is about a hero saving the world, a subplot might explore the hero’s relationship with a close friend, adding emotional depth.

Weaving subplots into your story requires balance . Introduce them naturally, and make sure they connect to the main plot at key points. This connection helps to maintain the story’s focus and ensures that all elements of the plot work together.

How to Write a Story: Setting the Scene

When learning how to write a story, setting plays a crucial role. A well-crafted setting does more than provide a backdrop; it immerses the reader in your world and shapes the entire narrative. Let’s explore how to build a compelling setting and use it to enhance your story.

World-Building

World-building is the process of creating a believable and immersive setting for your story. Whether your story takes place in a real location or a fictional one, the setting must feel real to the reader .

Start by developing the physical landscape . Think about the environment—are there mountains, forests, cities, or oceans? What’s the climate like? How does the weather affect the characters’ daily lives?

Next, consider the cultural landscape . What are the customs, traditions, and values of the people who live in this world? How do these influence the characters and their actions? For example, in a society where honor is highly valued, a character might go to great lengths to protect their reputation.

Finally, think about the emotional landscape . How does the setting make the characters feel? A bustling city might create a sense of excitement or stress, while a quiet village could evoke feelings of peace or isolation. These emotional cues help the reader connect with the setting on a deeper level.

Using Setting to Enhance the Story

The setting is not just a backdrop; it influences the mood, theme, and character actions . Use the setting to create a specific atmosphere. For example, a story set in a dark, rainy city might feel tense and mysterious, while a story set in a bright, sunny field might feel warm and hopeful.

Setting can also reinforce the theme of your story. In The Great Gatsby , for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the opulent settings of West Egg and East Egg to highlight the theme of wealth and its corrupting influence.

By carefully crafting your setting and using it to enhance the story, you can create a world that feels alive and integral to the narrative . As you continue to learn how to write a story, remember that a strong setting can be as important as the characters and plot.

How to Write a Story: Writing the First Draft

When learning how to write a story, the first draft is a crucial step. It’s where your ideas take shape on the page. This stage can feel daunting, but with the right approach, you can overcome the fear of the blank page and start writing with confidence.

Getting Started

Starting your first draft can be intimidating. The blank page often feels like a huge obstacle. To overcome this fear, remind yourself that the first draft doesn’t need to be perfect . It’s about getting your ideas down, not about crafting flawless prose. Think of it as building the foundation of a house—you’re just putting up the framework. The details can come later.

To start strong, consider beginning with a scene or moment that excites you . Don’t worry about writing in order. If there’s a particular scene that’s clear in your mind, write that first. This helps you build momentum. Once you’re in the flow, it becomes easier to tackle other parts of the story.

Writing Techniques

Several writing techniques can help you move through your first draft. Freewriting is a useful method. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes and write without stopping. Don’t edit or second-guess yourself; just let the words flow. This technique helps you bypass your inner critic and get your ideas on paper.

Word sprints are another effective strategy. Set a timer for a short period, like 20 minutes, and challenge yourself to write as much as possible. The pressure of the timer can push you to write faster and worry less about making it perfect.

Setting daily goals can also keep you on track. Decide on a specific word count to hit each day, whether it’s 300 words or 1,000. Consistent progress, even in small amounts, adds up over time.

Remember, the goal of the first draft is to get the story down. Don’t get caught up in editing or fixing every sentence. There will be time to refine your work later. For now, focus on moving the story forward.

Dealing with Writer’s Block

Writer’s block is a common challenge during the first draft. When you feel stuck, it’s important to take a step back. Breaks are crucial . Step away from your writing, take a walk, or do something else you enjoy. This gives your mind a chance to reset.

Changing your scenery can also help. If you’ve been writing at your desk, try moving to a different room, a coffee shop, or even outside. A new environment can spark fresh ideas and break through mental barriers.

Revisiting your inspiration can reignite your creativity. Look back at what inspired you to write this story in the first place. Read a favorite book, watch a movie that relates to your theme, or browse through your notes. These activities can remind you of your passion for the story and help you push past the block.

How to Write a Story: Revising and Editing

Once you’ve completed your first draft, the real work begins. Learning how to write a story doesn’t stop at getting your ideas down; it involves shaping and refining those ideas into a polished narrative. Revising and editing are essential steps in this process.

Importance of Revisions

The first draft is just the start. Think of it as the rough clay that you’ll now mold into its final form. Revisions allow you to step back and see the bigger picture . This is your chance to rework the plot, deepen character development, and improve pacing. For example, you might find that a subplot needs more attention or that a character’s motivations aren’t clear. Revising helps you address these issues and strengthen your story.

During revision, focus on the structure of your story . Does the plot flow logically? Are the character arcs satisfying? Is the pacing consistent? These questions guide your revisions and help you see where changes are needed. For instance, if the middle of your story drags, you might need to cut unnecessary scenes or add more conflict.

Self-Editing Techniques

After revising, it’s time to edit your work. Self-editing is a crucial skill in learning how to write a story. Start by checking for consistency . Ensure that characters act in ways that align with their personalities and that the plot doesn’t have gaps or contradictions. For example, if a character is afraid of heights, they shouldn’t suddenly climb a mountain without explanation.

Next, tighten your prose . Look for areas where you can be more concise. Remove unnecessary words, redundant phrases, and anything that doesn’t serve the story. This makes your writing clearer and more engaging. Also, watch out for clichés . These overused expressions can weaken your story. Replace them with original descriptions that better capture your unique voice.

Seeking Feedback

External feedback is vital in the revision process. After you’ve done your self-edits, consider sharing your story with beta readers or a writing group. These readers can spot issues you might have missed, such as unclear plot points or characters that need more development.

When receiving feedback, it’s important to stay open and objective . Criticism can be tough, but it’s meant to help you improve. Focus on the suggestions that resonate with you and use them to strengthen your story. For example, if multiple readers mention that a certain scene feels out of place, it’s worth re-examining that part of your story.

Final Steps: Polishing Your Story

You’ve revised and edited your story, and now it’s time to polish it. This final stage is crucial in learning how to write a story that’s ready to share with the world. Polishing involves careful proofreading, proper formatting, and preparing your story for submission or publication.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the last line of defense before your story goes out into the world . It’s about catching those small errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that can distract readers and undermine your professionalism. Take the time to read through your manuscript slowly, line by line. Look for common mistakes like misplaced commas, incorrect verb tenses, or misspelled words.

A clean, error-free manuscript shows that you care about your work and respect your readers . It also makes a better impression on agents, publishers, or anyone else who might read your story. Consider reading your story out loud . Hearing the words can help you catch mistakes that your eyes might skip over.

Formatting and Presentation

Once your manuscript is error-free, focus on formatting. Proper formatting makes your manuscript look professional and easy to read. If you’re submitting to a publisher or agent, follow their specific guidelines. Common formatting standards include using a readable font like Times New Roman, double-spacing the text, and including page numbers.

Different formats may require different presentation styles . For instance, a manuscript intended for print might need different margins or paper size than one intended for digital platforms. If you’re self-publishing, make sure your manuscript is formatted correctly for the platform you’re using, whether it’s an eBook or a print-on-demand service.

Presentation matters because it’s the first thing a reader or publisher sees. A well-formatted manuscript shows that you’ve taken the time to present your story in the best possible way.

Submitting or Publishing Your Story

After polishing your story, it’s time to decide how you want to share it with the world. There are several avenues for publishing, each with its own process.

Traditional publishing involves submitting your manuscript to agents or publishers . If you choose this route, you’ll need to write a query letter. This letter is your pitch, a brief introduction to your story, and why it would be a good fit for the publisher. Keep it concise and professional. Highlight the main points of your story, such as the genre, the central conflict, and what makes it unique.

Self-publishing is another option. It allows you to maintain control over your work and how it’s presented. Platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or IngramSpark make it easy to publish your book as an eBook or in print. However, self-publishing requires more responsibility , as you’ll handle everything from editing to marketing.

Online platforms , like blogs or writing communities, offer a way to share your story with a wide audience. These platforms often have less formal submission processes, making them a good option if you’re looking to get feedback or build an audience quickly.

How Bibisco Novel Writing Software Can Help You Write Your Story

bibisco novel writing software is a powerful tool that simplifies the writing process. It offers features designed for creative writing , helping you organize your ideas and stay focused. With bibisco, you can create and develop your characters, structure your plot, and manage your scenes.

bibisco provides a clear overview of your story , making it easier to see how all the pieces fit together. You can track your progress, set writing goals, and keep everything in one place.

Whether you’re just starting or refining your draft, bibisco supports every step of your writing journey .

Conclusion: How to Write a Story

In this guide, we’ve explored the key steps a writer should follow to learn how to write a story. Each step brings you closer to creating a story that resonates.

Writing is a journey, and every story you create is a step forward. Embrace the creative process, even when it feels challenging.

Remember, storytelling has the power to connect people and share experiences across time and place. Your story, no matter how small it seems, has the potential to touch someone’s life. Start writing and let your voice be heard.

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31 Great Content Writing Examples, Tips, and Tools

• by Ann Gynn
• | Published: August 21, 2024
• | Content Creation

Great content writing must be powerful and effective to captivate your audience.

But accomplishing that with your content writing isn’t an easy task. Whether you craft words for B2B or B2C audiences, the challenges can be many.

To help, I’ve compiled web writing examples, tips, tools, and resources. The goal is to give you some insights and new tools to help address or minimize the creation stumbling blocks web and content writers face.

Let’s get to it.

1. Go for the surprise

When you write something that’s unexpected, your audience will likely stop scrolling and take a moment to learn more. In the worst cases, this approach to content writing falls under the nefarious clickbait category. But in the best cases, it can delight and engage the viewer.

Nike is always a go-to source for the best content examples. The summer of 2024 didn’t disappoint with its Winning Isn’t for Everyone campaign.

With a debut in time for the global games, Nike featured the world’s greatest athletes (well, all the great Nike-sponsored athletes) talking about they are motivated by victory and that there’s nothing wrong with wanting to win. Writing those four words — winning isn’t for everyone — fosters a strong reaction. After all, there are far more people who don’t win than do. But audiences are also likely to watch more of the videos to learn what Nike is really talking about.

As you watch the video, note the repetition of the same question (“Am I a bad person?”) followed by short, staccato-paced statements. This approach creates a lyrical story. And it paid off, earning over 2.2 million views in two weeks.

2. Don’t forget text has a starring role in video

Words appear in blog posts or descriptions of product features and benefits. But writers can also shine in  video scripts, along with set designers, actors, and filmmakers. Writers can take any topic and help make it captivating.

J.P. Morgan used animation and strong scripts to explain finance-related concepts in its Unpacked series, a finalist in the Content Marketing Awards for best video. This 4.5-minute episode covers how private companies go public:

3. Tap into trends with simple writing prompts

I’m always a fan of Dove’s #KeepBeautyReal campaigns. Most recently, it created an example of powerful writing in this simple question, “ What kind of beauty do we want AI to learn?”

Capitalizing on the AI trend and interest, Dove illustrates the difference between AI-created images for prompts about “beautiful women” and “beautiful women according to Dove’s Real Beauty ads.” In the first three months of its debut, the video with few words has earned over 100K views on Dove’s YouTube channel and garnered mainstream and industry media attention.

4. Let your audience create great writing and video examples

Creativity can emerge in many ways. Sometimes, it’s a simple starting point that reflects the times, as Dove did in its content example.

It also may lead a brand to contribute to its own pop culture trend as The Stanley did with its Quencher Cup social media campaign in 2024 . Its influencer campaign prompted these fun user-generated examples of web writing and illustration in the form of memes and TikTok videos promoting the brand’s popular drinking vessel.

Hilarious Scales created this sample that’s been seen by over 10 million viewers:

@hilarious_scaless How yall be lookin with them Stanley Cups 🤣 #fypシ #fyp #stanleycup #stanleytumbler ♬ original sound – Hilarious_scales

Fans of hockey (that sport with the other Stanley Cup) also got into the action as Instagram account Daily Facebook shared this example:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by DailyFaceoff (@dailyfaceoff)

5. Nail down your headlines

I’ve said it often: Headlines are the powerhouse of your content writing. After all, if the headline isn’t a success, the content behind it will never be read.

A 2024 study published in Science Advance conducted over 30,000 field experiments with The Washington Post and Upworthy headlines. It found that readers prefer simpler headlines (more common words and more readable writing) over complex ones. They also paid more attention to and more deeply processed the simpler headlines.

The e-book headline in this example from OptinMonster is straightforward: 50 Smart Ways to Segment Your Email List. It uses a numeral (50), a helpful adjective (smart), and a second-person pronoun (your) to speak directly to the audience, all of which elevates the article’s value in the reader’s mind.

Image source

6. Analyze the potential impact of your content headlines

Size up headlines with the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer , which reveals an emotional marketing value score.

This headline example — 14 Ways Marketing Automation Helps B2B Companies Succeed — earns an emotional marketing value (EMV) of 37.5%. Most professional copywriters’ headlines typically have a 30% to 40% EMV score.

The same headline in a similar tool, CoSchedule Blog Post Headline Analyzer , earns a score of 77 out of 100. This analysis looks at word balance, headline type, sentiment, reading grade level, clarity, and skimmability. It also identifies areas for improvement, such as the use of uncommon, emotional, and power words.

7. Adjust title formats with this content writing tool

Speed your formatting tasks with TitleCase . The tool converts your title into various circumstances — all caps, hyphen, etc., so you don’t have to rekey or reformat.

8. Write headlines with words that resonate

BuzzSumo research consistently identifies “how-to” or guidance-focused headlines that resonate far better with audiences than any other type.

It makes sense. Audiences are seeking information that will help them in their lives, and they have a lot of content from which to choose. By writing phrases like “how to” in a headline, you tell them clearly what they’re going to get.

Get more tips from CMI’s article How To Create Headlines That Are Good for Readers and Business .

9. Focus on clarity for web content

Explaining your product or service can get cumbersome, but it shouldn’t if you want the audience to quickly understand how your company can help solve their pain points.

In this example, Zendesk succinctly highlights three results gained by the enterprise clients of its customer service platform:

• Drive better conversations
• Maximize agent efficiency
• Adapt faster to change

The three- and four-word headlines are followed by short explanations (two sentences) and a link to the product’s relevant features for that category.

10. Write to win over readers

How does your content inspire readers or get them to care?

Some suggestions include:

• Focus on actionable content they could use right away.
• Establish instant credibility and expertise so they understand why you’re the go-to resource.
• Add value they wouldn’t see or find elsewhere.

This ad for the Content Marketing Institute newsletter works well as a sample of website content writing. It illustrates how to motivate the audience to see that the content is relevant for them. Its headline “Looking for Fresh Content Inspiration?” speaks directly to the reader. Its follow-up sentence explains in detail what the reader will get — expert advice, standout examples, and creative ideas.

11. Choose words that motivate actions

Sometimes, it’s a simple word or phrase that prompts someone to take the next step. Buffer offers a list of more than 150 words . These 19 words and phrases are examples of how to gain the audience’s trust:

• Bestselling
• Endorsed by
• Money-back guarantee
• No obligation
• No questions asked
• Recommended
• Transparent
• Try for free

In this web page example, OptinMonster opts for one of those words in its headline — How To Create a Fail-Proof Digital Marketing Plan in 5 Steps .

12. Keep it brief but convey a lot

Given your audience reads on screens, your web writing usually appears in a small space. Yet, it still must reflect a strong message.

For example, this American Express Business web copy uses five words to indicate that it gets the reader’s problem — “Don’t stress over seasonal surges.” Then, it uses another five words to indicate that it has a solution — “Help you keep your business thriving.” On the right, it shows the product name that will do all that (American Express business line of credit.)

13. Create compelling content with better words

Choosing a single word to convey the perfect sentiment makes the most of your available content space. To help, Jon Morrow of Smart Blogger offers a collection of words that can make a difference in your writing: 801+ Power Words That Make You Sound Smart . Here are 15 of them:

• Frightening

In this headline — Firefox Hacks for Everyone: From Cozy Gamers to Minimalists and Beyond — the Mozilla blog opted for one of the power words, “hack.”

 I’ll issue a caveat on this option: Power words can quickly become overused. “Hack” is coming close to saturation.

14. Length isn’t everything

I like to know content length rules and preferences. They give me guideposts for my web writing.

Google makes 30 characters available in its ad headlines, and it’s hard to go shorter than that. This simple sample — Best Enterprise CRM Platform — is 28 characters.

On social media, though, the character parameters are greater, and you could improve engagement by falling short of the upper limits.

Instagram is a perfect example of where writing content short of the 2,200-character maximum caption is a better decision. In fact, experts say the ideal length is 125 characters, which takes up the space visible before the viewer must click to read more.

Still, sometimes writing fewer than 125 characters can work well and draw attention in a crowded feed, as this sample from Grammarly shows. Its caption — “Learn actionable strategies for leveraging Gen AI to elevate your team’s productivity.” — totals just 88 characters.

Of course, exceptions exist. If your content’s primary goal is search engine optimization, longer content is almost always best. As a website ages, it may be able to get by with shorter pieces because it’s already established authority and has more pages, inbound links , etc. However, extended content often helps generate high rankings for targeted keyword phrases and similar words.

15. Choose short words for your web writing

You don’t need to use a lot of words to get your point across. Short ones can work in your favor. Consider these common examples of better choices:

• “Show,” not “indicate”
• “Get rid of,” not “eliminate”
• “Use,” not “utilize”
• “To,” not “in order to”
• “Help,” not “facilitate”
• “Get,” not “obtain”

16. Use a tool to keep track of word counts

Meet your word count goals and improve your word choice with the WordCounter tool. It also helps identify keywords and their appropriate frequency of use.

17. Recognize common writing mistakes

Grammar Girl , created by Mignon Fogarty, founder of Quick and Dirty Tips, outlines some common mistakes, such as this example on the use of that vs. which in writing.

“The simple rule is to use ‘that’ with a restrictive element and ‘which’ with a non-restrictive element … The cupcakes that have sprinkles are still in the fridge. The words “that have sprinkles” restrict the kind of cupcake we’re talking about. Without those words, the meaning of the sentence would change. Without them, we’d be saying that all the cupcakes are still in the fridge, not just the ones with sprinkles.”

18. Use parallel construction

Parallel construction organizes the text and relieves your readers of expending mental energy to piece together the thoughts.

• For example, this mish-mash list is not parallel because the sentence structures vary:
• It could be time to look over your business software contract.
• Consider the best products.
• If you want the product to benefit your company, include others’ points of view.

The list is parallel because every sentence starts the same way – with a verb .

• Review your business software contract.
• Shop for the best products based on features, costs, and support options.
• Ask key members of your team for their perspectives, including productivity barriers.

19. Know when to break the infinitive rule

Avoid splitting infinitives. However, sometimes you might need to bypass grammatically correct in favor of unawkward content.

Pro Writing Aid explains that split infinitives are nothing new — their use dates back to the 1300s. However, there is a time and place for them, as shown in this example from Northern Illinois University’s Effective Writing Practices Tutorial :

• Split infinitive but easily understood: It’s hard to completely follow his reasoning.
• No split infinitive, but awkwardly written: It’s hard to follow completely his reasoning.

20. Be conscious of pronouns

A conversational approach typically works best when you’re creating web content. Writing in the first or second person can accomplish this.

Embracing inclusivity also fosters a conversational atmosphere.

When you’re using pronouns, make sure it’s clear to what the pronoun refers. Given some people use they/them pronouns, ensuring pronoun clarity is especially important.

In those cases where the reader may be confused, explain the person’s use of the plural non-gendered pronoun in the text, for example, “Alex Alumino, who uses they/them pronouns …” Even better, just repeat their name in the sentence so there’s no need to explain and no misunderstanding.

21. Don’t overuse words

Redundancy bores. To figure out if you’re committing this sin, paste your text into the Word It Out tool. The word cloud reveals those used most often in your text.

We input a recent CMI article about user stories to create a word cloud for that content sample. It is no surprise that “user” shows up front and center, but it’s also an indicator for us to review the article to see if “user” is overused. “Katie” also shows up prominently in the word cloud as it’s the first name of the source for the article, and CMI uses first, instead of last names, on second and subsequent references. A review of the article could reveal it unnecessarily references the source too many times.

Similarly, WordCounter detects whether you’re using the same words too often. Use Thesaurus.com to find alternatives.

22. Try this content writing tool to replace jargon-like words

You need to speak your audience’s language, but that doesn’t mean you need to adopt the industry’s jargon. De-Jargonizer is designed to help analyze the jargon in scholarly articles, but the tool works just as well with your content writing.

In this example from a CMI article about building a social media plan , De-Jargonizer identifies four “rare” words — ebbs, inhospitable, clarifies, and actionable.

You can upload a file or paste your text to discover those rare words, aka potential jargon, in your content writing. Then, you can find more reader-friendly replacements.

23. Check your readability score

Even if readers can understand the jargon and complex sentences, they still don’t want to work hard to understand your content. To help understand if your writing is on the easier side, use a tool like Web FX’s Readability Test . It scores your content’s average reading ease and targeted readership age.

In this example, it evaluates the Fedex.com website and concludes it has a reading ease of 27.8 out of 100 and is targeted at 14- and 15-year-olds.

You can scroll down to see other readability scores, including Flesch Kincaid reading ease, Flesch Kincaid grade level, Gunning Fog, Smog Index, Coleman Liau, and Automated Readability Index.

The bottom of the evaluation includes the statistics about the evaluated text, including:

• Total sentences
• Total words
• Complex words
• Percent of complex words
• Average words per sentence
• Average syllables per word

Adjust your writing to meet the preferred readership level of your audience.

24. Evaluate sentence structure with the Hemingway App

Want more help to write content that’s easy to read? Consider tools like the Hemingway app, which provides immediate and detailed feedback on content structure, including sentence formatting. With the website version, you can replace the default text with your own.

The Hemingway app identifies potentially unnecessary adverbs, warns about passive voice, and triggers alerts to dull, complicated words.

In this web writing example from its home page, Hemingway App highlights one of the 13 sentences as very hard to read, one as hard to read, two weakener phrases, and one word with a simpler alternative.

25. Get web writing right with good grammar

Proper grammar is a necessity; you want to get everything correct to satisfy readers (and bosses). Try Grammarly .

Improve your writing with this cloud-based, AI editor. Grammarly automates grammar, spelling, and punctuation checks, often giving better, cleaner content options. The tool also alerts writers to passive voice, suggests opportunities to be concise, and assesses overall tone.

You also can save time and energy with ProWritingAid . It eliminates the need to reread to polish your content. This AI editing software offers more than grammar checks. It checks for vague wording, sentence length variation, and overuse of adverbs and passive voice. The tool also identifies complicated or run-on sentences. (“Content Writing Examples, Tips, and Resources”)

26. Read your web content in scanning mode

Here’s some sad news for content writers: Readers won’t consume every word in your content. They skip and scan a lot to see if the content is a good fit for them, and then they hope they can glean the relevant information without having to consume all the content.

As you write, think about how the text will look visually. Make it easy for readers to scan your content by including:

• Short paragraphs
• Bulleted lists
• Bolded text
• Words in color

27. Read aloud

If your content doesn’t flow as you speak it, it may not work for the reader . Pay attention to when you take too many pauses or pause in places where no comma exists. Adjust your text — add a comma or break the sentence into two.

Microsoft Word offers a read-aloud feature through its immersive reader tools, while Google Docs can use a Chrome extension to give a voice to the content .

28. Use plagiarism checkers

In recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence have prompted growth in automated plagiarism checkers. Microsoft Word embeds the feature option in its software as does Grammarly. You also can use tools dedicated to ensuring that the content writing isn’t a copycat (or being copycatted), including:

• Unicheck – Verify the originality of work with plagiarism detection. You can spot outright copying and minor text modifications in unscrupulous submissions.
• Copyscape – Protect your content and your reputation. Copyscape uncovers plagiarism in purchased content and detects plagiarism by others of your original work.

Of course, no plagiarism checker is 100% accurate, so before you accuse a content writer of plagiarism, triple-check the results (and add a human touch whenever appropriate).

29. Use a topic tool for writing inspiration

HubSpot’s Ideas Generator works well to get your creative content writing juices flowing. Just fill in the fields with three nouns to get some ideas.

For example, if you input the words car, truck, and SUV, HubSpot delivers these ideas along with the targeted keywords for the topic:

• Keyword: Top truck accessories
• Keyword: Comparing SUV models
• Keyword: Truck bed organization ideas

HubSpot’s topic generator also allows users to pick a title and have an outline created for that article.

You also could perform a similar exercise by writing the prompts in other generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Gemini .

NOTE: Always review the titles and accompanying data to ensure accuracy. In the HubSpot sample, the generator included a headline — Discover the Best SUVs for Families in 2021. Yet, it’s 2024.

30. Know SEO responsibilities in web writing

Sometimes writers create content with multiple purposes. They have the burden of blending SEO into the content . I frame it as a burden because it’s one more variable to deal with. If you have a knack for SEO and goals you can measure, it’s not a burden.

Unfortunately, you sometimes don’t know what realistic keywords to pursue. Aim too low and you use rarely searched keywords. Aspire for something too competitive, and the content won’t rank.

How are you evaluating keywords? Learn how to find your sweet spot with keyword selection (and how to appear on the first page of Google). Identify potential keywords by using tools like:

• Moz Keyword Explorer
• Google’s Keyword Planner
• Keyword Tool
• AnswerThePublic
• Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest

31. Monitor relevant topics to get ideas for your content

With Feedly , you can stay informed about what matters most and avoid information overload. This AI assistant learns your preferences, then culls and curates content from the internet that you want and need.

Share your favorite writing tricks

What content creation and copywriting productivity tools do you favor? What do you do each day to make your writing tasks just a little easier? Please tag CMI on social media using #CMWorld.

All tools mentioned in this article were suggested by the author. If you’d like to suggest a tool, share the article on social media with a comment.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can't attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The Craft of Magazine Writing

Learn the skills and insights you will need to jump-start your career as a magazine writer. This course will teach you how to get your work published and turn your writing skills into an easy source of extra income.

Details + Objectives

Course code: mw1.

Have you ever thought about writing for magazines? Turn your dreams into bylines and help yourself to a bright future as a magazine writer. It is fun, easy, and a great source of extra income. If you are a determined new writer, or if you haven't written for magazines in years, this class will jump-start your career. You will learn plenty of powerful brainstorming techniques designed to get those creative juices flowing with articles that practically write themselves.

What you will learn

• Learn how to find ideas for articles
• Understand how to use your market guidebook
• Get an overview of production tips and grammar rules
• Learn how to interview various subjects
• Understand how to write for a reader in a clear crisp way
• Learn how to do research for your writing

How you will benefit

• Become more confident in your ability to build a career as a magazine writer
• Learn ways to keep the creative juices flowing so you're never without new ideas
• Understand the magazine writing world so you can be more successful

How the course is taught

• Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
• 6 Weeks or 3 Months access
• 24 course hours

Did you know that you don't have to be an expert on a topic to write a magazine article about it? You don't need a wall of diplomas to be a writer, either. If you think it's necessary to have taken formal courses in writing, journalism, or communications to write, reconsider that idea. In this lesson, you'll discover where ideas originate and get started as a writer of nonfiction magazine articles.

Ask a magazine writer about the genres available to this profession and you'll learn about consumer topics, informational pieces, question-and-answer formats, true crime articles, and a bunch more. You'll hear about how-to articles, too. If you've been seriously thinking about writing for magazines, then you need to know about the categories. You'll begin that investigation in this lesson.

You've just purchased the latest market guidebook with the writing guidelines for oodles of magazines. It's awesome, complex, and exciting. If you feel overwhelmed, you're not alone. Some new writers get copies of market guidebooks and, once they've thumbed through them, put them aside. The books can be intimidating. But after this lesson, you'll be a pro at selecting magazines that want articles from you. By the end of it, you'll be able to use an innovative outlining tool, called The Bubble Method, which will help you make every single topic a potential article.

What is a query letter? Do nonfiction article writers really need them? How can you write one that will capture the interest of editors? That's what this lesson will discuss: giving you a foundation for writing a query that sells your ideas.

In this lesson, you'll get a quick review of production tips and grammar rules. But the gem is a section on how to interview the people, experts, and celebrities that you'll be writing about. Whatever type of article you write, you may have occasion to interview someone. Not being an effective interviewer will diminish your chances of success. However, what you learn in this lesson will make interviewing fun and easy.

Money. It's the topic of this lesson and will be discussed in depth. The lesson will then debunk that bugaboo, "writer's block". Yes, writer's block is out there, waiting to get your attention and stop you in your tracks, but in this lesson you'll learn how to simply acknowledge it and then get writing once again.

Do you know your reader? Most new writers say, "Hey, of course I do". But unless you know who you're writing for and write in a fashion that captures and sustains a reader's interest, you'll find writing for magazines a huge challenge. So, this lesson will talk about writing for a reader, ways to create clear and crisp writing, and writing fillers and essays.

Have you ever wondered how magazine writers know how many words are right for a specific topic? Have you thought about where sidebars come from? Do you want to gain credibility for a nonfiction book and further your profession, cause, or company? You'll get answers to those questions and much more here in this lesson.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to research topics for articles and understand how to get yourself into the research picture. It's nearly painless and really fun once you know the techniques professional magazine writers use.

Do you need to interview an expert or get a quote from one to make your article sparkle? You probably have a book in your house right now that would supply what you're looking for. This lesson will talk more about finding experts to make your articles sizzle. Then you'll examine the tools you need to self-edit. Self-editing is the polish that turns okay writing into publishable words.

Recycle your research and you'll be able to sell and resell ideas without reinventing the wheel. That's the focus of this lesson. The lesson will also discuss writing about theme and seasonal articles, locating regional publications that would be crazy not to have you write for them, and networking with others to increase the number of articles you sell.

Imagine you're about to print an article that you've been working on for a week. It's dynamite and headed for publication in a major magazine. This is your lucky break. As weird as it seems to a cyber-savvy writer like you, the editor wants a printed manuscript. After thinking, "this magazine is still in the dark ages", you smile and comply. However, you've run out of paper (or need a printer cartridge) or stamps or some other indispensable writing supply. If this hasn't happened to you yet, it may, unless you realize that time is money. Time management is the final topic and since there's only so much time in the day, you'll learn how to use what you have, and use it well.

Instructors & Support

Eva Shaw, Ph.D., is a full-time working writer. She has authored thousands of articles, essays, short stories, and more than 70 books, including "Writing the Nonfiction Book," "Insider's Guide to San Diego," and her latest release, "The Pursuer." Her work has been featured in USA Today, San Diego Union Tribune, Publisher's Weekly, and others. She has won several awards, including the Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the Woman of Merit Award.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader .
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.
• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

When can I get started?

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.​ Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.​

How does it work?

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor. Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

How long do I have to complete each lesson?

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.​ Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

What if I need an extension?

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​ Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Dr. Shaw is a wonderful instructor. From the start of the course she made a comfortable environment which encouraged students to submit their assignments and participate in the discussion areas. I will definitely be taking another one of her classes.

It may sound corny, but I feel that someday I'll look back and know "this is the course that got me started". Thanks to Eva.

I took this course because I wanted to improve my chances of getting published. I had already read a book by Dr. Eva Shaw and had found it the most practical book on writing I had ever read. Consequently, I was excited to take this course. This class has not only given me new insight but renewed confidence as well. I would highly recommend any class taught by Eva Shaw.

Thanks so much for your inspiration. I have learned so much. Thanks for getting me so jazzed about writing.

There is great news: I got the job! My future boss loved my writing (many of the samples I gave him were from your courses). Thank you so much for helping me put my future back on track. I am so excited about this new start, and I wanted to thank you again for helping me to make it possible!

This class was all that I had hoped and so much more. The instructor made it a pleasure, and the information was extremely helpful.

This class was the kick in the pants that I needed to get started as a freelance writer.

What a unique class! This was my first-ever online class. And I did not expect the whole process of learning to write for magazines to feel so natural. This was sooo cool! Many thanks to Eva and all the classmates. I printed and saved several of the discussions because they had such useful ideas.

The editor of a magazine has asked me to proceed with my article on discrimination for their upcoming issue. I am so excited!!! Thank you so much, Eva. This would never have happened if I had not taken your class.

Eva, at your suggestion, while I was in your Writeriffic class that ended in October, I submitted an article to my local newspaper when they put in a call for guest writers. I just received confirmation that I will be one of three guest columnists for 2011—I will have 4 articles published! I spent time yesterday talking with the editor and she got me in touch with a writer's group in this area. This new world of writing is opening up to me. I'm very excited and I have you to thank for the nudge! This course will help me to refine my work and the feedback will give me the confidence to turn it in, not just to the newspapers, but also to magazines.

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