Disambiguating The Editing Process

Editing is never perfect. We are so eager to publish and we get sloppy.

How many times do you update a post on average after it has been published? How many typos do you catch after the fact?

When I finish writing my draft post, my first step is to send it to my wife, who is a BA English literature grad and an avid reader. She reads it, checks for authenticity and flow. Mainly, I am looking for her blessing. Is it good enough for my audience?

I go back into editing mode, and keep correcting until it’s MY version of perfect.

Then, if time and timezone permits, I send it to my younger brother - a CPA living in Australia. Maybe it’s his accounting skills, but he has a keen eye for spelling mistakes and typos. Nothing gets past him. He will send me screenshots with red marks, like a teacher scoring an exam paper. I love it.

The truth is that the editing process is long and laborious. It takes a while for new writers to get into the habit. I wondered if it was just me or did my fellow writers on Substack feel the same way. So I asked.

For

Kristi Keller

the editing process is a continuous activity.

I often go back to old posts and add relevant links to newer posts within the text. Never know who might stumble across an oldie on Google and follow links to more of your work!

What an excellent point. While I do visit old posts to update tags sometimes, I don’t go back to check if the links are still working or relevant.

Karina Pawlak

reads her post “a million times” before publishing.

I know there are probably mistakes. There is a point at which we just got to let go and move on to the next piece.

Nessa Meshkaty, MD

also knows that some mistakes can still get past our editing eyes, and adds a disclaimer for readers as a fail-safe.

I think adding a disclaimer is a smart idea, at least till editing becomes a comfortable part of our process.

Willow Stonebeck

seems to have the process nailed down for non-fiction.

I typically edit once after finishing a draft, let it sit for a day or two and then do another pass. Generally gets things where I want to go for my Substack nonfiction, which is mostly mini-essays and book reviews and such.

I really need to practice patience when it comes to publishing posts. I need to learn to walk away from it, sleep on it.

Bryce Payne

knows exactly what I am going through.

For me, I've been writing live (i.e. writing a publishing on same day) and occasionally find a typo or two immediately after sending it out (despite reading before I publish) and then discreetly correct online.

As writers, we also rely on tools during the writing+editing process.

Richard

and

Greg Watson

use Grammarly. I use Ulysses while

Patricia Cusack

uses ProWritingAid. There are many more out there.

These tools can be a double-edged sword. One, they aren’t perfect to find all the human mistakes. Two, most of these tools have AI capabilities, forcing us to rephrase and reword entire sentences. The dependency on AI in the editing process can kill the originality of our post, the sentiment behind it, the uniqueness of our voice.

So, I hope we learn to use tools wisely. I chose Ulysses mainly because of its lack of AI skills. I pride myself in stating to my readers that my writing is human-generated, all organic.

That’s all, writers! Now go forth and write without fear, and edit without mercy.

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash