My Blog

Before I get started, I would like to give out some recognition to Shea. I realize after posting Maximizing Your Writing Time: Ideas! I need Ideas! that I had forgotten to talk about carrying around a notebook to write down ideas, and I would like to say that is actually a better method than the one I talked about.

Anyways… it's time we make our way to editing. After outlining your process, and gathering ideas, it is time to fix the writing you just did. Now there are multiple methods for accomplishing this, but here are a few methods that I would recommend trying out.

First…Find what needs edited

You've written your content and need to get it edited, take a small break after writing to make sure that you coming at it with a fresh pair of eyes. The reason for doing this is simple…If you go straight to editing, you know what you want to say, when you come at it with fresh eyes, you are a read, not a writer, and will have a better shot at catching all your errors.

Method 1

There are multiple ways of doing this, and the easiest way is to print out you work; making sure to double space it. I realize this can hurt the environment and isn't always practical, but I'll get to the other method in a moment. The Benefit to this method is that you get to highlight or underline the work that you do. Drawing arrows for suggestions, and crossing out stuff that you don't want. If this is the method that you are using I would recommend using the "number method," along with it to make it easier.

The "Number Method" can be pointless for some, but when editing a book can be very helpful. How it works is you grab 1, 2, and 3, and tag it to each paragraph. 1 means great job, only needs spell check, 2 means could use a bit more work, while 3 means go through and seriously edit, or delete the paragraph. Even if you don't like this it can still help if you are really busy and want to set yourself up for real editing later.

Method 2

The 2^nd method is to scan you computer screen to look for problems. This is the method that most people use, and if you are using it make sure to set on Track Mistakes, so you can see what you changed. This is nice, but you can easily miss small mistakes, and might find yourself with a view "spelling error," comments on your blog, or writing.

Biggest things to worry about

If you are posting to a blog it is critical to realize that small spelling errors happen, it's a part of blogging. Just make sure that people can understand what you are trying to say. Make sure that the post flows, and doesn't "jump" around. You want it to flow seamlessly so that the reader doesn't get lost in what you have to say.

That's all I can think of right now. So what do you guys think? Is this a good method, or would you recommend something else? How do you do your editing, and or what would you add?
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Other Writes of this Series
Time to Publish
Editing your work
Ideas! I need Ideas!
Start with the Outline