The following writing tips will help you improve your skill in this craft, which will reduce your editing costs. You will catch mistakes in your work and become a better writer by putting these tips into practice. I will regularly add new writing tips, so check back soon for updates!

1. Read your work out loud. Hearing your project will help you greatly as you edit your own work. You will be surprised at how you will hear something that doesn’t makes sense or that doesn’t sound quite right.

2. If necessary, a manuscript should first go through a developmental edit, then one to two rounds of copy edits and then a final proofread.

3. Developmental edits look at the big picture, including plot, character, setting and theme.

Copy edits address smaller details, including spelling, grammar mistakes, flow and word choices.

Proofreading addresses the fine details, including punctuation, typos, capitalization and more.

An analogy of these editing rounds is like using sandpaper on a piece of wood, working from a heavy grade to a medium grade to a fine grade, in order to make your project as “smooth” as possible.

Note: Not every manuscript needs developmental editing.