7 Top Golden Rules of Self-Editing

#5 is my favorite one.

One of the most famous short stories of all time was written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wall-Paper.

How can a brilliant mind write a story about a declining woman talking about wall-paper? A simple wall-paper. I guess writing brilliance is picking an indifferent theme and turns it into the center of the speech.

I loved to read that piece of writing. It stuck me on the screen for 20 minutes. I couldn’t take off from the way the text immerses us in that vacation home. A deep dive into the description of the walls. An immersive description of the woman on the verge of madness.

It’s easy to pick someone’s brains and rewrite them in our own way. Yet, creating from scratch through a single observation into a profound dilemma touches genius.

A few world-famous writers uniquely do this kind of art. One of these people is Malcolm Gladwell. The best-seller author of five nonfiction books on sociology, psychology, and social psychology wrote one short story in The New Yorker about ketchup. And he started with one question: Why hasn’t ketchup changed?

Gladwell drives us into the world of ketchup. Some random issue and an intriguing question results in one of the best short stories ever written. Who would remember to talk about ketchup?

Doesn’t matter what the situation is. Genius writers have the power to create art out of thin air. Fabulous short stories transport us into a new world, the writer’s world. It’s an immersive journey where you jump from word to word without realizing the passage of time.

And as short stories are created and make history, so does a good question. A good question is an entering door, an invitation. It’s a writer extending hand so that we can stroll into his garden of thoughts.

So, what is behind all this complexity of words? Who makes all these impressive short stories live for centuries? What if the writer changes one or two words from the place? Would it have been different?

Sometimes a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light.

Many writers can’t edit their own writing. They write tons of words, put them on a white paper, and leave them there for a while.

A few days later, they return to edit. But editing is no easy task. Much less find a good editor. Someone who enters the writer’s soul understands his message, maintains the characteristic of his writing, and improves his voice.

Yet, editors don’t choose any random writer to work with.

Suppose you are a writer that leaves the text unpalatable, full of beginner’s mistakes, meaningless sentences, and walls of words that all together no longer belong to the same line of reasoning. In that case, the editor turns his back and goes on to his life.

The best thing to do is use these self-editing tips for success.

1) Start strong.

If editing is the art of correction, make your writings the art of surprise. Start in such an extraordinary way people can’t go anywhere. Some of the most prestigious publishers and editors reject work because of a lack of initial power.

Start strong on page one.

Ensure that your first pages establish a scene, create conflict or generate a mystery — possibly all three.-writermag.com

2) Push your reader into your galaxy.

I love to start reading a novel, and the writer pushes me hard into her or his world. I love the smells, tastes, and textures right into my body. I love to feel the breeze of a Mediterranean ocean with drops of saltwater bouncing on my face, carried by the creator’s words.

That morning there were brioches and raspberry jam, the eggs were cooked and there was a drizzle of butter on top of them that melted when they were stirred and seasoned in the glasses with a pinch of salt and ground pepper. They were large, fresh eggs, and the girl’s eggs were less cooked than the young man’s. He remembered this well and was glad to dip the spoon in his own, let the butter moisten it, and savor the coarsely ground peppercorns and drink the steaming coffee and the cup of coffee with milk, resembling chicory.- Ernest Hemingway in The Garden of Eden

3) Read your pieces aloud.

Better than reading your articles aloud is to download a free app that can do it for you. I use Free Text to Speech, and after I pass my writings through another two apps, Hemingway and Grammarly, I finalize my editing work with an app that can read aloud my article.

It’s the ultimate test. But makes all the difference. Listening to your work in the voice of another person is most helpful.

It’s really a game-changer.

4) Avoid description highways.

Unless you’re creating a badass introduction, transporting the reader into your own galaxy, avoid those boring explanations that put your reader in a state of near-deep sleep.

Suppose the point is just to say that Jack went into his car. In that case, you don’t have to describe “ While Jack puts his hand on the door to open his car, and hears the door creaking, feeling his back flexing to enter and sit comfortably on the padded leather seat while lighting his cigarette and turning on the car.”

You can go with “ While lighting his cigarette, Jack enters in his 40-year old car. “

Writing is made of flows. Avoid offering your readers walls of endless descriptions.

Writing should be a simple song of fast and slow rhythms.

5) Choose active versus passive voice.

The first time I used Grammarly, the app was always adding notes about lots of “was” or “were” words in my writing. I was frequently using passive constructions, such as: “ When I was at home, I was telling my kids that they were too quiet and I was always saying to them that it was not correct if they were able to communicate with me.”

Then, investigating how I could avoid so much “was” and “were”, I could go with “ My kids’ quietness made me explain to them the importance of good communication.”

Readers understand it. You don’t have to write as you’re speaking to a 3-year-old child.

6) Spelling is the perfect trap for dummies.

Try to type the following: “Michael Jordan? He was form Chicago Bulls.”

Every incorrect word is spelled correctly. Use grammatically appropriate words. As a non-native writer, you can imagine how I suffer daily from this matter. Make sure words are spelled the right way. Don’t blindly trust spellcheck.

Some words still keep my brain trapped. Grammarly is my safe-haven. But as time goes by and my reading milestones grow and grow, the more I feel less helped by the app. And that’s an excellent sign.

Sometimes I write entire paragraphs, and when I copy past to Grammarly, the app says it’s all good. That makes me proud of myself. It’s the best way for you to know you’re on the right track.

7) The power of a mentor/editor.

In a fascinating interview with Sinem Günel and Colleen Welsch, I finally understood the importance of having an editor supporting my work. Welsch told Sinem about an editor with whom she’s working. Her name is Bayley Sprowl. And the first thing I did was getting in touch with Bayley.

Now, she edits two articles a month, and we do a 60-minute live coach every thirty days.

To a non-native writer, having a professional editor supporting your work, understanding your goals, and helping you get better every day, is the last step for success.

Final Thought

Being a full-time writer on Medium is a totally awesome adventure.

Believe me. You’re not just a writer, you’re an entrepreneur. You don’t have only to be a good writer; you also have to be a good editor, a good salesperson, a good social media guru, and a good communicator.

But success on Medium is not only about technical skills. You have to be honest with your message, fair with your audience, sincere with your words, and friendly with other writers.

It’s the ultimate challenge for those who love to write.

Some outside writers don’t fit on Medium philosophy. They can be extraordinary writers, with lots of books published and chronicles written in the best magazines. But on Medium, you have to be complete.

You have to be very good at grammar, structure, editing, and marketing.

On Medium, you’re not just a writer.

You’re the owner of a community that follows your brand.

You are an untamed content producer that can complement everything into one single person.

Editing makes one of that portions a reality. Editing is the last piece of the daily puzzle you just created. Editing is a kind of quality control of your product before it goes to your store’s shelves.

Before you turn yourself into a writer mogul, you have to be an editing nerd. You have to do that, for your readers’ sake.

Don’t stop learning new things with other writers. We are a community that suffers the same kind of pain. From top to bottom. From ultra-experts to beginners.

When you learn something new, you share it. When you suffer something new, you share it. When you find a new helpful tool, you share it.

We are the sum of each other’s teachings.

But never forget.

Write without fear, edit without mercy.

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