5. Save the editing until later
Many writers are guilty of editing on the fly. They agonize over every sentence, worry about punctuation uncertainties, reorganize paragraphs half a dozen times and end up writing in a very slow, stop-start manner.
Just as making an outline and doing your research should be kept apart from the actual writing, so should the great bulk of the editing.
[div class=”ads-right”] [end-div]This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t correct an obvious typo as you write; it just means that to maintain a smooth and productive flow, it’s best to just get into the groove, continue cranking words out and get them on to the screen.
Self-editing is at least as important as any other aspect of writing, and if you cannot do it well you will not become a good (or great) writer.
The rule in editing your own work is to wait awhile. Have a break of a day or so between the writing and the editing.
The longer the piece you’ve written, the longer you should wait. And a word to the wise – do not rely too much on online spell checkers and grammar checkers.
They have their uses, but you still need to perform thorough proofreading and structural editing of your work.