Editing

Right off the bat I'm going to admit it I"m awful at editing. Okay, well maybe not awful but pretty bad. I attribute my bad editing practices in part to the fact that I was never directly taught grammar in school. Now when I told a college professor  this she asked me how I'd made it to college. Basically I taught myself, learned from what teachers marked on my papers, and there was a major cram session with my mom before a grammar test. I can sort of tell when things are in the wrong spot or missing but if you ask me to point things out I'm doomed.

Now when it comes to editing for content I'm much better. I"m good at making sure the story flows, characters don't drastically change, etc. This part of the editing I really enjoy, especially in my own writing because it means I can identify parts that aren't working and change them This is part of the editing process is important because what makes sense in our heads as writers doesn't always translate to paper as well. Because this type of editing makes changes to the story I've found that writers, myself included, are a little more resistant to these changes. As long as your changes are honest and productive they're easier to make.

Since I write by hand I take advantage  of this and two edits. The first edit is on the hard copy. I used colored pens or markers and make what grammatical corrections I can. Here I'm not really reading the story as going through line by line. Next I type the piece. As I'm typing I'm reading the story so here I'm able to edit the content of the story. As I type I make changes, then I have someone else check it over a final time.

So if you're like me and lack skills in editing it pays to have two things. One, a supply of books like Elements of Style and Painless Grammar on hand. And two, friends who respond to facebook pleas for editors with no pay.