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You are here: Home / Editing and Proof Reading / Editing and Proof Reading – Busting the Myths

By Idrees Patel

Editing and Proof Reading – Busting the Myths

So you’ve written a novel. Oh, okay, let’s not use the word ‘novel’. Say anything: short story, essay, just any form of writing. You’ve written the first draft. You think it’s good. You think it’s great. You think it’s wonderful.

But it’s not ready to be distributed or shown to anyone else yet. Before that, there is what some writers call the ‘mammoth’ task of editing/rewriting. To make sure that everything is perfect. No contradictory information, no confusing sentences, no over-used words, no kid-like grammar, and the like. Similarly, checking for spelling mistakes (typos) or grammar mistakes (called by some as grammos — I personally don’t use that word!) is known as proof-reading.

Many writers hate the task of editing or proof-reading. Why?

Because they think it comes when the ‘creative stage’ of writing is finished. They hate to look for errors — they’re already convinced it’s done, come on! Proof-reading — argghhh (according to some writers). Necessary evil.

But when one looks below the surface, a lot of different answers are to be found. Editing is not as hard as it looks. Nor is it boring. It’s fun.

Yes, I’m not kidding. It’s fun to correct your work. Although it’s not as much fun to correct the same mistake over and over again. 🙄 To fix broken sentences, to correct grammar — the fun of that depends on you. For me, they’re not too great, but they have to be done, nevertheless.

And what about proof reading? Well, even that’s not as hard as most people think. Yes, it is a bit boring—in fact, very boring at the start—but it’s immensely rewarding. When you go over the same thing twice and find that all previous mistakes were corrected by you, the author, the feeling which comes is great. Sense of achievement!

As a matter of fact, proof reading your own work is also helpful long-term. When the brain collects information about what kind of mistakes it’s doing, it will not do the same mistakes again. Grammatical errors such as the wrong use of the apostrophe, “its” vs. “it’s” or “accept” vs. “except” will be done plenty of times in the first draft. But as you keep editing, proof reading, writing, editing and proof reading all over again, you’ll find that the mistakes will gradually reduce. The brain will get more competitive.

Proof reading: proof reading generally means to check your work minutely for typos, grammatical errors, strange repetition of words, accidental contradictory information and the like. Although they’re highly annoying to correct the first time, it’s also rewarding to see after a period of time that you’re no longer making those mistakes just because you made them in the first place. See Copyblogger’s excellent article on this for more information.

So now we know that editing and proof reading is not as hard as it looks, and it’s also rewarding!

Now, will you hate editing your draft again? 😉

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Further Reading:

  1. No Method? No Problem!
  2. Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Creative Writing
  3. Proofreading: Catching Contextual Spelling Errors
  4. The Big Picture of a Novel — Part II
  5. Writing Tip: The Importance of Word Count

Filed Under: Editing and Proof Reading Tagged With: editing, rewriting

Idrees Patel

Idrees Patel is a Bachelor of Management Studies graduate, and is located in India. His goal for Writers’ Treasure to make it a resource which provides in-depth and effective writing advice for writers.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Craig says

    September 19, 2010 at 6:21 PM

    There’s a great book that covers “levels of editing” called Technical Editing (by J. Tarutz). The author recommends making three separate editing passes; first for large content restructuring, second for sentence-level issues, and third for typos and other minor issues. I find that breaking the editing process up this way helps me to focus more effectively.

    Great tips, Idrees!

    Reply
  2. Karen says

    June 21, 2013 at 2:43 PM

    I couldn’t agree more. Proofreading has been the most hated part of some writers. We have to deal with it as it is very necessary to make our works error-free.

    Reply
  3. j says

    September 13, 2016 at 1:41 AM

    It’s exausting at times but I love it when a better way to word a sentence / paragraph comes along. Or, a okay chaper gets a revision and fits better. When I get stuck I start editing chapters that haven’t been checked yet it gets things moving again.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Improve Your Creative Writing | Writers Treasure says:
    May 20, 2010 at 6:08 PM

    […] Further reading: Editing and Proof Reading: Busting the Myths […]

    Reply
  2. Proof Reading: Catching Contextual Spelling Errors | Writers' Treasure says:
    June 16, 2010 at 5:17 PM

    […] and what not to do. So if you make these mistakes one time, you must correct them manually first by proof reading and editing. This way you know what mistakes you make when writing. That’s another good thing to know. And […]

    Reply
  3. Writing Tip: The Importance of Word Count | Writers' Treasure says:
    June 25, 2010 at 11:31 PM

    […] shouldn’t focus on it. It’s that simple. Word count is something that requires attention in the editing and proof reading stage. If you’re typing out a first draft, forget word count. Forget structure. Get the thing […]

    Reply
  4. 7 Questions to Consider When Writing says:
    August 31, 2010 at 6:40 PM

    […] Grammar. Sentence structure and composition. Spelling and punctuation. For this, you have to edit and proofread. The thing here is that these things do matter, but how much they matter, that depends on your […]

    Reply
  5. Creative Writing 101 | Junctionway says:
    February 19, 2019 at 5:15 PM

    […] Further reading: Editing and Proof Reading: Busting the Myths […]

    Reply

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    About Idrees Patel

    Idrees Patel is a Bachelor of Management Studies graduate, and is located in India. His goal for Writers’ Treasure to make it a resource which provides in-depth and effective writing advice for writers.

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