Editing is often the least favorite part of a writer’s job. There are many writers and bloggers I know who hate the task of writing and look upon it as menial work. Boring. Drudgery. Uncreative and a time suck. But without a decent editor your work can look sloppy and unprofessional. Perhaps you will one day write a blockbuster bestseller and have an editing department at your beck and call. However, until then there are some really simple techniques I use to self edit. And frankly you should always self edit before you send a piece in for publication. So here you go:

Happy Editing!

Five Super Simple Editing Tricks

1. Cut all or most of the instances of this word – THAT. Often an unnecessary word.
2. Read your article or blog out loud always. Read it in your head too for flow. But when you read it out loud you get the sense of where your tongue trips on a word or phrase and you hear the natural rhythm of speech. Where the tongue stumbles, work is necessary. Cut the words, rejig. Whatever is needed.
3. Challenge yourself stylistically. Note where you have sentence fragments and note that you are not repeating the same style of sentence over and over again. That is a boring read.
4. Always double check that spelling. No excuses in the age of spellcheck. Spelling anything wrong makes you look amateur.
5. Overused metaphors and similes. Figures of speech can be overdone. They can be too flowery or simply overused. What a bright idea! The boy was quick as a jackrabbit. Things that you have heard too many times before bore others too. So take it out or change it up.

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