Editor Amanda has some thoughts for you.
I get it, everyone hates editing. I mean, I don't rally get it because it's my favorite part of the writing process, but in theory, I understand why others don't like revisiting work they consider done and tearing it apart, so it sound more right.
But it important! For readability, clarity, respectability, everything. If a piece of writing is riddled with errors, not only do people take it less seriously, but the message is harder to discern because it’s more work to read though.
Even the most profound, life-changing thing will be completely ignored if it’s badly written or has grammartical errors or other typoss.
“But I don’t know all the grammar and punctuation rules!” I hear you cry. That’s fair. I edit for living, and I don’t even know them all. But that’s not an excuse. Almost every person can improve their writing by simply reading it out loud. You catch a lot that way: Did that sentence sound wierd? Is there a word missing? Oops, I typed the same word word twice in a row.
Does this add an extra step in the writing process? Absolutely. But it’s worth it when you can catch simple, slip-of-the-finger errors and prevent people from thinking that you dont know what you’re doing, cuz you totally do!
And if you’re reading this and caught an error or too, good job! You just proved you can edit your own writing as well. Now, go forth and do it.
"I don't rally get it because it's my favorite part of the writing process," Of all the places for a typo!
I edit my books 5 ways--MS Word & grammarly, then printed out and read backward one sentence at a time, then forward, then via beta readers, then back to Word for a check. Inevitably I find the most glaring errors after I publish.
I'm TRYING! Oh I'm trying!
But it isn't the line edits and proof reading that chill my soul and make me want to go to the dentist as a distraction, it's the big picture stuff. The structural edit.