When I was in college I thought everything I wrote was perfect just the way it poured out of my head and onto the page. It wasn’t. But I very rarely rewrote anything. Besides the fact that I thought my writing was just fine, I didn’t want to go through the physical, time-consuming work of writing it out again by hand. I typed even more slowly than I wrote. And at that time in my life I had more important things to do than term papers.

Ironically the first job I took after college was as an editor of educational books. There I learned these two important things:

• Everything benefits from editing
• How to type much faster

Now after decades of editing and writing for a living, I offer these tips for editing your own work.

1. Let your writing cool off before you edit it. Writing and editing are two separate events. Not only are they separate, but they are almost contradictory events. When you write you are in creative mode, when you edit you are in critiquing mode. To write you avoid judgment and let your brain go wild. Just as in brainstorming, you turn off that inner critic to avoid shutting down the flow of ideas. Get all the words out on the page. Then put your work aside before you edit it.

Come back the next day, wearing your editor hat. I picture myself wearing a green eyeshade, like those old city editors in the black and white movies. (Oh I just know they were green, don’t you?) I haven’t taken up cigar smoking because I am afraid the ashes would burn holes in all my sweaters.

2. Look for sentences that are too long or run on. Any sentence that has more than 25 words can probably be shortened.

If you have more than one of these in one sentence it is probably a run on sentence:

• And
• So
• Then
• Because

3. Read your work out loud. My mother was a writer, and she always said she read her work out loud to hear the “clinkers.” Like so many of those bits of mom-wisdom, this one holds up today. There is something about hearing the words that lets you zero in on words that don’t fit or are repetitious. You may also find things that just sound awkward.

Trust your ears.

4. Don’t try to make it perfect. It’s not going to happen. You can edit for hours and polish that piece forever. If you read it a week later, a flaw will jump right off the page and slap you in the face. You incompetent, you! Just accept it. Nothing is perfect. Be satisfied with very good. If it is really important, put in the extra time and effort to get to excellent, but just let go of perfect.

5. Have someone else proofread it. Do you have a colleague, friend, spouse, or child who is a member of the spelling and grammar police? You are in luck. A once over by a second pair of eyes will assure you that you have done all you can for the piece. Now it’s time to release your ideas into the world.