Profwriting

How well do you edit?

Answer the questions in the space provided, then compare your ideas with the advice of our professional writers by clicking on the buttons.

How often do you redraft your work?

Why you need to self-edit

No one gets a piece of writing right first time – well, except Susan Hill perhaps – and very few professional writers are happy with a first draft. Most work needs to go through dozens of revisions before it is good enough to show a publisher or agent. On your first read-through, make sure that the work matches the brief you set yourself. Then redraft and redraft until the plot and characters hook the reader from the first page and until the writing sounds fresh and shows off your distinctive voice. Lastly, check spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors – all make a poor impression on fellow writers, editors and agents alike.


Do you know what to look out for when self-editing?

Useful self-editing tips

• Put your writing away for at least two days before re-reading.
• Read your work aloud – which passages do you stumble over? How could you rework them?
• Interrogate every sentence. What purpose does it serve; how does it move the story along, how does it justify inclusion? If it doesn’t, or if it only repeats or sums up, strike it out. How many sentences can you jettison?
• Does the point of view work? Would the piece have more impact from another character’s perspective or in another tense?
• Look at the structure of your sentences. Do you use the same type or length of sentence over and over? How could you vary this?
• Highlight all the verbs. Are they repetitive, are they distinct enough, are the tenses effective?
• Strike out most of the adjectives and adverbs. How can you convey this information with verbs and nouns instead?
• Read through for clichés: descriptions, adjectives, images. Do they serve a purpose? If not highlight them, then press delete.

Do you ask for others’ opinions?

The importance of second opinions

Once you are happy with a piece of writing, it’s important to show it to others. This takes you one step nearer becoming a professional writer. The most useful critics may not be your best friends or mother, but those with no knowledge of your subject matter or interest in pleasing you. Writing groups and peer-review sites are good places to start sharing your work. Don’t be shy of asking another writer to look through your work – fellow writers are good at picking up problems you’ve overlooked and offering helpful suggestions for improvements. Critiquing by peers forms an important part of any writer’s apprenticeship.

To find out more

• Search for a writing group.
• Try a mini course in Sentence structure or Critiquing your work.
• Take a full-time writing course.
• Post your work for peer review.
• Commission a professional review of your work.
• Enter your best short pieces of fiction or non-fiction for the monthly competition on our new writing showcase, Bloc.

Why you need to self-edit

No one gets a piece of writing right first time – well, except Susan Hill perhaps – and very few professional writers are happy with a first draft. Most work needs to go through dozens of revisions before it is good enough to show a publisher or agent. On your first read-through, make sure that the work matches the brief you set yourself. Then redraft and redraft until the plot and characters hook the reader from the first page and until the writing sounds fresh and shows off your distinctive voice. Lastly, check spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors – all make a poor impression on fellow writers, editors and agents alike.

Useful self-editing tips

• Put your writing away for at least two days before re-reading.
• Read your work aloud – which passages do you stumble over? How could you rework them?
• Interrogate every sentence. What purpose does it serve; how does it move the story along, how does it justify inclusion? If it doesn’t, or if it only repeats or sums up, strike it out. How many sentences can you jettison?
• Does the point of view work? Would the piece have more impact from another character’s perspective or in another tense?
• Look at the structure of your sentences. Do you use the same type or length of sentence over and over? How could you vary this?
• Highlight all the verbs. Are they repetitive, are they distinct enough, are the tenses effective?
• Strike out most of the adjectives and adverbs. How can you convey this information with verbs and nouns instead?
• Read through for clichés: descriptions, adjectives, images. Do they serve a purpose? If not highlight them, then press delete.

The importance of second opinions

Once you are happy with a piece of writing, it’s important to show it to others. This takes you one step nearer becoming a professional writer. The most useful critics may not be your best friends or mother, but those with no knowledge of your subject matter or interest in pleasing you. Writing groups and peer-review sites are good places to start sharing your work. Don’t be shy of asking another writer to look through your work – fellow writers are good at picking up problems you’ve overlooked and offering helpful suggestions for improvements. Critiquing by peers forms an important part of any writer’s apprenticeship.

To find out more

• Search for a writing group.
• Try a mini course in Sentence structure or Critiquing your work.
• Take a full-time writing course.
• Post your work for peer review.
• Commission a professional review of your work.
• Enter your best short pieces of fiction or non-fiction for the monthly competition on our new writing showcase, Bloc.