In a ideal world, you’d never have to edit your own work, but well, you know the drill… life’s not fair…
So, how do you go about editing your posts?
Here are five simple (and kind of easy) steps to editing your blog posts.
Step One: Walk away
It’s true in all aspects of life that being too close to things means we don’t see them clearly enough.
See, you know what you meant to write, so your eyes just fill in the blanks, overlook typos, etc. That’s why you need to get a little distance.
After you write your first draft, go get a cup of coffee or take a walk to clear your head.
Step Two: Think of the readers
Imagine you’re the intended audience reading your blog post for the first time. The big questions you want to answer here are:
- Would the reader understand what you’re trying to say?
- Does it hold your interest from start to finish?
- Does it include all the information you need (e.g., important numbers, URL, event location)?
Step Three: Edit to make everything clear and concise
Edit to make your writing as clear and concise as possible:
- Trim long sentences: If any are longer than 25 words or so, consider turning them into two sentences or removing any unnecessary words.
- Slim down the words: Replace long words and phrases with short ones. In other words, why say “ascertain the location of” when you can just say “find”?
Nothing is more daunting to a reader than a dense block of text. Add some breathing room with white space between paragraphs, bold subheads and (where appropriate) bullet points.
Step Four: Edit out the mistakes
Here are a few major points when it comes to editing blog posts:
- Good writing is error-free. This means perfect spelling and no typos.
- Check for the correct use of homonyms like to/too/two, their/they’re/there, etc. Spellcheck doesn’t always make those distinctions.
- Confirm you’ve spelled all names correctly. This mistake can be particularly embarrassing.
- Good writing avoids the energy-draining passive voice.
- Good writing is formatted correctly. Check your margins, use of spacing and consistency in style of headings — font, bold or not bold, capitalization, etc.
Step Five: Now clean it up and read it again. Out loud.
After you’ve made your revisions, it’s time to read it again. Out loud. From start to finish, and then the other way around. Why? Well, if you go about it from the end, you’re reading individual sentences, so it’s easier to catch mistakes and typos and such.
And now what?
Depending on your time, you can repeat the process a few more times.
How long should it take to edit a piece?
As long as it takes for you to feel like you never want to read it again. I’m serious.
Rewrite, edit, read out loud, and edit, and proofread until you can’t stand the idea of having to do it one more time.
Editing is a skill that can take years to perfect. But if you follow these recommendations, you’ll greatly improve the quality of your blog posts.
You’ll have done your best, which is all anyone can really ask of you.
Great points, great post
I find taking a walk is also a great way to clear my mind when I’m experiencing a little writer’s block. Thanks for your tips!
You may think I’m crazy, but editing has become one of my favorite parts of writing. I find such pleasure from streamlining and focusing the ideas I attempted to pour out in my first drafts. I’ve also found that writing to a word count will really help with Step 3. I learned this from the various writing contests that limit the word count in the final submission. If you know you cannot exceed a certain number of words you can focus on what you need to say and eliminate the fluff.
Excellent post! I have come to this same process myself after catching errors in many of my posts after they have been posted. Much better to catch them prior to release!
Great tips again, Cristian! I loved the step 5, reading out from finish to start! This way it’s easier to spot errors. Amazing!!
I think you can over-edit and lose focus though. I don’t like to spin out the process too much, partly because I tend to write a post a day.
Great tips! I noticed I am already doing 1-3, just need to follow through with the steps 4 & 5. Thank you for sharing. This is very helpful. 🙂
So much true.
Get on with this!
Very useful…especially for my blog where I mainly write art tutorials and being consistent is crucial to help the reader follow the line. No doubt avoiding typos and good formating shows professionalism. Thanks for sharing
I knew some of the points but there were several I didn’t. I will start following your plan.
You’re enlightening me. Thanks for the post😍 😍
Really great tips, much appreciated.
Another great post! 🙂
Thanks again! 🙂
Your advice about re-editing until you never want to read the thing again strikes a chord with me. I enjoy editing more than the initial writing. I like rewording for clarity and simplicity. I enjoy moving the paragraphs around so that the logic flows seamlessly. My problem is dragging myself away from the thing to submit it (and even then I always find something I missed in the Preview stage).
And, of course, finding stuff to write about.
I like editing too. I am so grateful for that!! So many people hate it.
Excellent, great advice. Thank you
Ugh i hate rereading what i write. If i did that for everything i wrote, i would never publish anything. Haha.
Reblogged this on Cristian Mihai.
VERY USEFUL!!! KEEP SHARING.
Thank you.
Very helpful
Thank you for reading!
I actually really needed this! Sometimes I get trapped and forget who I’m writing for and the whole purpose of my blog, thanks for the advice!
Thank you for reading, Elvia. I am glad you enjoyed this post.
I absolutely hate editing. It feels exhausting. But maybe if I try reading it from last to first, it will spice up the challenge. Thanks for the pointers.
I do not enjoy reading out loud and do not find it a useful editing technique for me.
Good points. I’m guilty of not reading my posts aloud and having long sentences.
6. Have somebody else read it. A fresh pair of eyes will see mistakes you will miss however many times you read you own work.
Indeed. But that is not always a viable option.
Another great post which is truly helpful for many of us🙏🙂👍
Thank you
Reading it out loud always helps!!
great stuff- i do not mind editing- Just have the challenge of finishing the posts…then editing is fun.
Your these 5 tips are great, thank you…!!!
Thank you for reading.
Thanks for this tip….
Great tips! I have to edit my posts so much for grammar, I enjoy writing so much but my grammar’s lazy and I’m always so conscious of it. Thank you!!
As they say, practice makes perfect. As you get better at editing, it stops feeling like such a chore.
Ha I can relate so much to the how long should it take part. I would even suggest having a few reads on preview after you think you have finished editing. I find the different format helps in seeing mistakes.
Or print the post out. Read it backwards. Read it out loud. Shout it. All of these things help you spot mistakes.
All good ideas. I like the reading backwards idea. Means you have to be more exact in your observation and not get lost by the flow of what you are reading.
Thank you very much. Your posts are most helpful.
Best wishes to you.
Yes, otherwise you get distracted because you tend to focus on different elements, such as paragraph and sentence logic. Reading it backwards means all that doesn’t have to make sense anymore.
And thank you for your compliments.
You’re welcome. Thank you in return for your ongoing great advice. It’s very much appreciated.
Editing – the necessary evil.
I find that when I’m putting a post together and slogging through the editing bit, that often simple errors whether it be spelling, grammar and such keep getting missed. I think it’s because my mind knows what is coming next before my eyes get there. As an example, my mind knows the word should be “were.” I’ve typed “where.” My mind thinks,” it’s all good – keep moving along” before my eyes get there and we simply keep slipping over it.
Slowing down certainly helps. A trick I learned years ago was to read what you’ve written backwards. It forces you to go very, very slow and to read each and every word.
Reading out loud is a great help as well.
Great tips, to help anyone with the editing process.
Yes, reading backwards is a great way to spot mistakes. Also, if time allows, you can print out your post in a different font that you are used to. That also does the trick.
The thing is that mistakes are kind of inevitable. Even “professionally edited” books have them.
That’s a great tip about printing it out using a different font. Within the writing and editing realm, mistakes will sneak through from time to time. Just need to do our best to catch them.
I think what I did not do well was taking a step back and revisit again. I would do that next time! Thank you for sharing.
To me, these excellent tips are essential. “Walk away” is strangely effective. I may read a draft 20 times and think it’s in good shape, but then wait one more day just to make sure. The next day I always find something I missed. It’s rare that I write and post on the same day. Solid advice, as usual.
Wait too long, it feel as if someone else wrote it.
I will take these ideas very seriously – and try to do a much better job of editing BEFORE I hit the “Publish now” button. Thank you, Cristian. BTW, when can I expect to see those 10 ideas for improving my blog??
Hi Jan,
You will have them by the end of the week.
This is so helpful! Thank you.
Really useful tips. Thank you
Good tips for many bloggers/writers who struggle to improve the quality of their posts. Taking extra time to proof and edit before publishing will be appreciated by your readers.
I’m the type of person to write, read over it once, maybe twice and post. I’m glad I read this because now I’m going to spend way more time on making sure my piece is perfect. At least as perfect as I can make it.
This is great advice. I sometimes get excited about something I want to post and get it up before I should. Thanks!
Excellent tips!! I walked away last night, and came back to it this morning and there were errors on the FIRST SENTENCE!! Wow lol
Great Tips! very insightful.
Thank you!
Excellent advice for bloggers and writers. Your point on slimming down words has come as a revelation. It has made me understand fancy vocabulary doesn’t always work.
Fancy vocabulary almost never works.
Great post. Thank you.
I like editing my own work. I can’t imagine someone else doing it for me. I know that’s how it’s done professionally, but still. “Walk away”, is the best advice. You can’t properly edit what you’ve been looking at for hours on end.
I clearly understand there is a big difference between editing and revising. Almost anyone with proper knowledge can edit but revising seems to be an art residing within the soul of the writer.
Thank you for your great advice. Being new at blogging is daunting. Not really being computer savvy only makes the situation more challenging. Your insights are clear and simple to understand. Excellent work.
The ‘read out loud’ part is so true! Thank you for your awesome tips, as always.
Thank you for reading, Aida.