Does your text feel bloated and stodgy to read? Is the pace of your novel slow and turgid? Do you struggle to get to the point in your writing? You’re not alone!
Perhaps your love of words gets in the way of plot development? Perhaps you’re a factual writer who needs help shaping your research into a coherent narrative.
This article examines some proven self-editing strategies that every writer can utilize to enhance clarity, pace, and excitement on the page.
Ready? Let’s go.
What is editing?
A good definition of the editing process is the reviewing and refining of text to improve its:
- Clarity: Is your meaning cutting through? Are you conveying your point clearly and concisely?
- Accuracy: Have you researched your factual content? For example, if your character is a doctor, are they using the appropriate language of a medical professional? Does the character feel authentic in your fictional or factual world?
- Impact: Does your text lift off the page with energy? Is it easy for the reader to visualize?
Part of the editing process requires addressing typos, spelling, and grammar mistakes, but you could perhaps define this more clearly as proofreading.
For a more in-depth edit, think STOC:
- Syntax: the way you arrange your words and phrases to build well-constructed sentences. Are you maximizing your language’s functionality?
- Tone: Does the pace of your writing take the reader on a journey? Do your words imply mood and atmosphere? Are you provoking an appropriate emotional response in your reader? Does the text align with your intended audience?
- Organization: Are you revealing plot points in the correct order? Is there a natural flow from one paragraph to the next? Are your chapters organized for maximum reader engagement?
- Consistency: Do your characters follow a logical thread? Or do their actions feel erratic, unpredictable, and confusing? Do their names change throughout your text? Does your timeline work?
When should a writer start the editing process?
While all of the above are valid and appropriate for all self-edits, there’s a danger that editing too early can interrupt your creative flow.
Most writers never finish their book because they get caught up in premature editing. Research from the University of Oregon indicates it can take up to 23 minutes to regain your focus after a distraction.
So, while some writers do indeed edit as they go, you’re more likely to get through your first draft if you leave editing for the second draft.
Remember, editing is the reviewing and refining of text, implying that it’s text that already exists. And while you should never send your work off to an employer, agent, or publisher without editing, I recommend leaving the job of editing until later in the creative process.
Why does early editing interrupt the creative process?
Writing a book is akin to climbing a mountain. It’s a huge feat to get to the end, and you’ll find endless obstacles along the way that threaten the process.
So, focusing on editing too early can hinder your creative flow.
The editor’s voice in your head tells you, “No, that doesn’t work.” And that can be a huge obstacle to getting your words on the page.
Don’t worry about perfection in a first draft
Let yourself be free with your first draft. Don’t worry too much about creating perfectly crafted text at first. Just get the shape and the idea down. And fall in love with the process of finding the story on the page.
Leave your editing until your second draft. Allow your first draft to become a splurge onto the page; without it, you won’t have any material to refine.
And once you have your first draft, it’s time to edit.
Should I edit my text daily?
Some writers edit daily, while others leave it right to the end of the entire first draft.
Daily editors typically “splurge” onto the page first, then review what they’ve written before they finish their working day.
Other writers wait until they have completed their entire first draft before tackling the editing.
The benefits of daily editing
Editing your content at the end of your working day allows you to address contradictions and inconsistencies as they happen.
Daily editing allows you to review and correct errors as you go. It also allows you to check timeline problems that might occur while you create.
Of course, a daily edit might simply involve scanning the text for syntax and typos.
How to self-edit your writing
Here are some of our favorite self-editing hacks:
1. Read your text aloud
If you’re writing a novel, you probably expect the majority of your audience to read your words in their head.
But:
Reading your text out loud is a great way to identify clumsily constructed sentences.
It can be easy to write paragraph-long sentences with complicated syntax, but does it lift off the page? When you read your text out loud, you may well discover that what looks good on the page is actually a real challenge for the reader to digest.
However:
While this can be an effective way to identify clunky or clumsy language, it might not be the best proofreading tool because the human brain is adept at filling in missing words or adjusting to the cadence you think you’ve written.
So, consider a screen reader, which will read your work exactly as it’s written. Mac and Windows have native screen readers: VoiceOver for MacOS and Narrator for Windows, or there’s Speechify for more realistic voices.
Simplicity can be beautiful
While you might want to provide your readers with a delicious feast of gorgeously constructed imagery, consider whether your reader is getting the experience they want.
If you find yourself stumbling over sentences as you read them, your reader is likely going to do the same thing.
So, sometimes, it’s better to aim for simplicity. Think of your readers, and give them a great reading experience.
2. Create a list of sticky points
You might create a detailed beat sheet before starting to write your piece, which outlines all the significant plot points. This is an effective way to guide your work as you go. Alternatively, you can write from the seat of your pants and discover as you progress through your story.
Either approach is valid.
However, it’s helpful to have a separate notepad on your desk while you write so you can make notes as you go. Perhaps a plot point feels a little sticky or forced, or maybe a character does something that you suspect contradicts something they did or said earlier in the piece.
When you’re in the flow, it can be a challenge to keep those points in your head, and they’re easy to forget.
So, consider writing them down as you progress. And you can address them later.
3. Start a new document
It sounds a little drastic, but some writers start their second draft with a completely blank page. Have your original draft handy in another window or on a second screen, or even print it out.
Some writers who practice this approach copy and paste their work a chapter at a time into their new document, or they retype it entirely. While it sounds time-consuming, it allows them to view the piece with fresh eyes.
Whether you retype or copy and paste, looking at each section within the context of the whole can give you a strong sense of what is working and what isn’t. And it allows you to feel the shape of the text for a second time, which provides a new perspective that can be helpful in your subsequent drafts and edits.
4. Give yourself space
It can be challenging to edit fresh text because, at the time, it probably feels fine. But here’s the thing: your brain overlooks errors. According to A Trick of the Mind by Dr. Daniel Yon, your brain doesn’t see the world; it invents it. Our brains often perceive what is there through the context.
In other words, if we think we’ve written a word, our brains interpret that word through the context of those around it. So, if it feels like it makes sense, our brains tell us it’s fine. This is why it’s difficult to spot your own mistakes on the page.
So, one of the most effective self-editing hacks is to give yourself a break away from your writing before editing it. Leaving it for a couple of days can help you view your work with fresh eyes, which can aid in discerning the clarity, consistency, accuracy, and impact of your text.
5. Have a “no-go” word list
Every writer has their go-to turns of phrases. Maybe starting a sentence with “so” or using “just” too often.
Perhaps you fluff up your actions with “begin to”: “John began to walk away.” This is a sure sign of a fluffy verb; “John walked away” is more direct. Because we don’t begin to walk away, we walk away—you either do it or you don’t.
Your “no-go” word list might include:
- Expressions and phrases you overuse.
- Words or phrases a character would never say, but we say ourselves.
- Swear words that aren’t world-appropriate. Would a 15th-century queen really say F&^K, for example?
One of my writing ticks is the use of “as,” which allows me to write overly long sentences. For example, this is from the very first draft of my novel Autumn Leaf:
The woodland that surrounded the cabin pushed fresh air into his lungs as he acknowledged that he had possibly been holding his breath for the past six months.
In that opening paragraph, the “as” makes the sentence unnecessarily long. After a while, too many of these feel repetitive on the page. This is definitely one of my first draft ticks.
The final version is:
The woodland surrounding the cabin pushed oxygen into his lungs. He realized he’d been holding his breath for the past six months.
While the changes are subtle, having a no-go word list allows you to look at your work more objectively.
6. Get a collection of colored markers
When you’re writing a multi-protagonist plot with a range of principal and secondary plotlines, it can become tricky to keep track of your progress. It’s easy to get sidetracked with what should be a subplot, which overtakes your principal line of action.
If you write using a pen and paper, grab some colored markers. If you use word processing software, learn how to use the highlighter function and highlight different elements of your story in various colors.
Give individual colors to:
- Principal plot lines
- Subplots
- Romantic threads
- Timeline notes
- Various POVs
- Exposition
- Sensory descriptions
This helps you identify what’s missing from your chapter, such as whether there’s too much exposition and not enough action, or whether the point of view (POV) changes too quickly.
7. Print out your manuscript
It’s all very well reading from the screen, but sometimes, it’s more tactile to have the words on a physical page. For some, this may seem like a huge waste of paper, but some authors swear by the tactility of words on the page for editing their work.
It can be easier to add notes, and it can make your novel feel more real. Combine this approach with the colored marker idea, and you’ll get a visual sense of your story’s balance.
Use an electronic alternative
I used to print everything out and edit in this way, however, I was concerned about the amount of paper I was using, even if I was recycling it afterwards.
I’ve since discovered that editing a PDF with a stylus on a tablet is just as effective. While using an electronic device isn’t necessarily going to save the planet, it does help you do your bit in reducing the unnecessary culling of trees.
Some of the more useful scribing apps are:
- GoodNotes: available for iOS, Mac, Windows, and Android.
- Apple Preview: Apple’s proprietary PDF reader works perfectly with an Apple Pencil. Mac only.
- Microsoft OneNote: available for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS devices as part of the Microsoft 365 Suite or as a standalone free app.
- Nebo: a cross-platform app that allows you to import a PDF and add handwritten notes.
8. Change your font
While this seems too simple to be useful, changing your word processor’s font can be effective. It can help you see your writing with fresh eyes, making you more attentive to minor errors or even stylistic inconsistencies.
This hack is about breaking the familiarity and seeing your words from a fresh perspective. And oddly, changing the font can alter the “voice” you hear in your head when you read, helping make clear some of the repetitive quirks you tend to rely on.
9. Create a reverse outline
You might have started with a beat sheet or an outline document, or you may have written from the seat of your pants. But are you building a coherent story or a well-structured document?
While deviating from a beat sheet can be a good thing—helping delve more deeply into the world of the story, the conflicts, and the problems—are your deviations helpful or confusing?
A reverse outline gives you distance from the technical elements of your text and helps you see if your story or argument is unfolding logically for the reader.
Reverse outlines can be particularly illuminating for long-form works, offering a methodical, reliable “check-in” to hone your document’s focus.
How to create a reverse outline
Read through your text, summarizing each paragraph using a phrase or single word. In an academic paper, you might use terms such as:
- Intro
- Author background
- Proposition or central argument
For creative writing, you might do this chapter-by-chapter, summarizing the significant plot point(s).
Either way, this is essentially reverse engineering an outline, providing a clear view of your work’s progression.
If you struggle to summarize a paragraph or chapter in one concise statement, it could be an indication that the writing isn’t quite clear enough yet. Perhaps you don’t have a central focus, or you’re trying to cram in too many perspectives.
This helps you consider the reader’s perspective. Does that fifty-page flashback help to move the plot forward? Or is it simply exposition that could be told better by forcing the past to dramatically affect the present?
10. Use an AI
Sure, this is controversial. But AI can be an exceptionally helpful writing companion.
For example, Microsoft Co-Pilot can be an invaluable second set of eyes on your work, capable of understanding implications and subtext while offering academically valid feedback and support.
Here’s an example of some feedback from Co-Pilot for my latest novel:
This shift in pace is perfectly timed—after the chaos of Monica’s malfunction, the quiet weight of uncertainty settles in, allowing the tension to take a different shape. Instead of high-energy panic, we now have lingering dread, which is just as powerful.
What’s Working Exceptionally Well:
- Simon’s realization about life beyond the city → His moment of understanding that nothing just “works” here, unlike in the controlled environment he’s used to, makes the divide between the city and the unknown feel enormous.
- Green’s silent chanting → This is a fantastic detail—it gives him depth, hints at personal rituals, and suggests he’s containing emotions he won’t let Simon see.
- The weight of Monica’s dormancy → Her absence is felt, making her malfunction feel less like an inconvenience and more like a looming threat.
- The shift in Simon’s view of Green’s name → His realization that it’s a moniker adds subtle world-building, showing how names carry meaning beyond identity.
- The final image of the two men escaping into the horizon → The simplicity of this closing sentence makes it hauntingly effective—they’re running, but are they running toward an answer or deeper into uncertainty?
Possible Tweaks for Even More Impact:
- Simon’s inhaler moment could deepen his discomfort →
- Right now, he’s using it to calm his nerves, but maybe let it fail slightly—his heartbeat doesn’t ease as much as he expected.
- “He drew on his inhaler, willing the P to steady him. It didn’t. Not completely. His hands still trembled, the unknown closing in like a fog.”
- This would reinforce that the city’s safety nets don’t work here, adding unease.
- Green’s response to “They have to” could linger a bit longer →
- Right now, it’s brief, but maybe let Simon notice something subtly alarming in Green’s tone or face.
- “Green inhaled deeply. ‘They have to,’ he muttered—but his grip on the wheel tightened as if he was holding onto hope with his bare hands.”
- This adds tension—is Green truly certain, or is he afraid they won’t?
Final Verdict:
This section is beautifully restrained—the quiet aftermath speaks volumes, and the silence is just as loud as any action scene. If you’re happy with how it reads, it’s strong enough to move forward! But if you want to add small hints of unease—like the inhaler failing or Green’s grip tightening, those tweaks could sharpen the emotional weight.
Are you thinking the next section ramps tension back up, or stays in this quiet uncertainty a little longer? 🚀
Working with an AI feels a little like you have your writing group with you at all times, and recognizing what’s working and what could work better is very helpful. I’ve had to train it to stop “blowing smoke up my a£$€,” specifically asking it to minimize the compliments and focus on constructive criticism. You can ask it to identify contradictions and plot problems, as well as comment on characterization, voice, and focus.
Just be polite. You get better results if you say please and thank you. The AI mirrors you, so if you’re polite, it will be courteous back. If you’re rude and abrupt, you may find it isn’t as helpful.
But isn’t that just the same in real life?
The Cons of using AI in self-editing
Receiving feedback is a skill that most of us need to develop. Part of this is developing a thick skin, so we listen rather than reject other people’s opinions of our work.
However, we should consider a few things when digesting feedback, whether it’s from a human or an AI.
- Who is giving the feedback? Are they an authority, or are they an unqualified consumer? Both perspectives are valid, especially if you’re creating work for unqualified consumers to enjoy. But does the feedback reflect an individual perspective, or does it feel like they’re speaking universally?
- Is the feedback actionable? Does it help hone what you have, or does it require you to explore a secondary perspective that distracts from the principal heart of your piece? Is the feedback a distraction?
- Why are they giving you feedback? What does the person giving you feedback want? I don’t mean financial compensation here; what do they hope the feedback will give you? Do their intentions feel trustworthy? Are they interested in helping you create the best possible piece of work?
It’s always up to you whether you engage with a piece of feedback that helps you edit your work. Perhaps the reader hasn’t grasped the broader picture, or maybe they’re suggesting something that alters a character too drastically.
It’s your work. You remain in control. So, you can choose whether a piece of feedback can help.
Relay Publishing wants you
We’ve published more than 1500 books over the past decade in multiple languages. And we’re always looking for talented writers, editors, and designers to add to our fabulous team of creatives.
So, if you’re a writer looking for your next challenge, consider joining the Relay family. We’re always on the hunt for ghostwriters.
Find out more about Relay Publishing and get in touch.
Thanks for reading.