Most of you guys are writers like me.
We write in our spare time, at work, on blogs, on our manuscripts. And, sometimes, it’s difficult to get a quality editor to help out after you’ve finished your work. Maybe you don’t have the extra income to pay a freelancer, or maybe you just don’t know how to go about getting one. And, let’s be honest, your buddy Joe is literate–good for him–but he’s not an editor.
So what do you do?
Here’s one very easy tip to make you a better editor.
It could be life-changing. Probably not.
But it’s so simple you’re going to be mad at me for making an entire post about it.
So what is it? What one tip will make you a better editor?
Here you go. It’s this:
Read slower.
Woah. Mind blown, right?
Yep, just read slower. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes you’ll catch by just following that small little tip.
It’s just common sense, but so many writers don’t think about common sense when they’re in a hurry to publish.
I’m a prime example. Some evenings, as I’m wrapping up post for the next day, I’m tired and I don’t bother to read back through the post.
The next morning, as I click publish, I skim through the copy quickly and end up missing obvious typos. Of course I know the difference between “you’re” and “your,” but when I’m typing and editing quickly it’s a fairly easy mistake to make.
During the first year of my current job, about seven years ago, I was the primary editor for my team. I’m not an editor by trade, but I was the only one fit for the job at that time, so I did what I had to do. Since I’m not the most awesomest of editors, I have to be very intentional when I edit.
For me, that means slowing down to the point that I’m literally pausing on every letter. That’s how I catch mistakes.
But you don’t have to move that slow. All you need to do is take a breath and read your work slowly. Read it out loud, even.
Do that one simple technique, and I bet you’ll start catching more mistakes in your work before they get published.
Now, please tell me how many typos and grammatical errors I had in this post.