the idea: take a few days away and then proofread by hand

After three years as a writing tutor in college, I have a few techniques under my belt to help people edit/proofread.  The hardest person to get to use these techniques is, of course, myself.

But as I go through my book there are three things that I used to always tell people who came to me for tutoring that I have used myself.

1.) Write your thesis on a post-it and stick it to your laptop so that as you write you can check back to it.  Everything you write should be somehow connected to what’s on that post-it.

It took me a while to find out what I wanted to put on that post-it.  When I first started writing I was just going off of my title, but thankfully by the beginning of March I came up with an actual post-it thesis.  For some reason that was around the time my book started becoming really solid…

2.) Read your writing aloud.

The best way to find grammar mistakes or confusing/clashing ideas is to read them because it’s hard to read things that aren’t written well.  This was actually my go-to move when I was a writing tutor.  I would have students come in and read their papers, putting a star any time they started to struggle.

3.) Walk away for a few days and come back.

I have to admit, this last piece of advice is not one that I often do myself.  I tend to churn stuff out and turn it in, as did most of the students I was working with.  However, as I go through Don’t Make Art, Just Make Something, it is important enough and I have enough time to walk away and come back.

I sent out the rough draft of my book about ten days ago and have barely touched the manuscript since.  Today was the first day I sat back down with a pen and edited an actual hard copy (which had actually been printed out by someone else who had read my book).  Unsurprisingly, I found a lot of new ways to say things that had been bugging be and a lot of places where I could either fill in ideas or take out excess words.

Here’s to a stronger piece of writing!