Believe it or not, writing something is the easy part. The much harder part is editing your own work. However, good writing often means ruthless editing. But how exactly do you do it?
In this blog post, I’ll share my editing tips to make you a better writer:
Get away from your writing
When you’re really in the groove on a piece of work, it may be tempting to edit it right away. However, that is a huge mistake. If you try to edit right away, you haven’t given yourself the space to do it properly. Wait a while before going back to your work.
When you do get back to it, read your work aloud. This helps you find errors you might otherwise miss.
Avoid these mistakes
Here are a few common mistakes you absolutely don’t want in your writing. This includes:
- Writing in the passive voice instead of the active voice. For example, the passive voice is “This article was written by Jody Royer”. Instead, the active voice is “Jody Royer wrote this article”. Active voice is much more engaging to read.
- Using cliches. It’s just lazy writing.
- Too much jargon. Don’t try to sound smarter – you want your writing to be accessible for people to read. Using jargon will make you come across as pompous.
Cut it all out
Ok, don’t cut it all out, obviously, but you can cut out more than you might think. Rambling on about something is much easier than saying it concisely, but you want your writing concise. If you can say it in fewer words, then do it.
Follow Jody Royer’s blog for more writing tips, book recommendations, and the latest on all things science fiction.
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