Improve your writing with this simple self-editing hack

Make those sentences sing, because good writing matters.

Good writing matters. Your word smithing is worth it. Because so many writers collide with a large roadblock labeled “Platform” on their desperate pilgrimage to publication, they mistakenly assume that a huge Tik Tok following trumps careful craft.

Don’t get me wrong. If you want to get published, platform matters, but not at the expense of solid writing. Traditional publishers want writers who write well, but also to bring an audience in their back pocket. But writing matters, too. And you can easily improve yours.

If you self-publish, no gatekeepers block your path, demanding that you have a five-figure email list, or that you even know how to construct a sentence, let alone a paragraph. You can self-publish bad writing and have no platform. I don’t recommend it. Because readers will reject poor quality writing. A badly written book will flounder in the sea of self-published titles, hundreds of which are released every day.

So self-published authors ought to care about good writing, too. If you want stronger writing, then revise, rewrite, and revise again. Read books about writing. Take a class. Learn and improve. But in the meantime…

Want a simple self-editing hack that will improve your writing and make your sentences sing?

I use this tool all the time, as an easy way to flag sentences that need a bit of attention and improvement.

I’ve spent this week self-editing the book manuscript my co-author and I just completed. When I write collaboratively, the process includes interviews, which are recorded, transcribed and then massaged into chapters. But even spoken language differs from written, even if your style is informal and conversational, if that makes sense.

We’ve written, revised, rearranged and revised again. But this week, I got down to examining each sentence to make sure it really worked.

When we speak, we not only umm and ahhh, we ignore rules of grammar or even the courtesy of finishing sentences. The most blatant offense, which then bleeds over into our writing? Our prolific use of “to be” verbs: is, was, were and so on.

We say, “He was running” instead of “He ran.”

We use it for passive voice: “A collection was taken up by the neighbors for the family,” when we should use active (and more concise): “The neighbors took up a collection for the family,” or better yet, “Generous neighbors paid the family’s bills.”

In my self-editing work (which is the real work of writing) this week, I started with the oh-so-helpful “find” function in Word. I started with “was.” Oh my. There was a lot of was. I found the word “was” sprinkled liberally through my paragraphs. (See what I did there?)

Look at this paragraph from my manuscript:

I was concerned, but not really scared. Yet. I reminded myself that we had friends nearby who could help out if needed. And of course, Fantasia was there. Fantasia was a beautiful yellow Labrador who had been Karen’s constant companion and service dog for eight years at that point.

I reworked it, changing “was” to more accurate verbs like “felt” but also rewriting, aiming simply for clear, concise writing. “Had been” is also a form of “to be” so I found a better way to say that as well.

I felt concerned, but not really scared. Yet. I reminded myself that we had friends nearby who could help out if needed. And of course, Karen had Fantasia by her side as always. A beautiful yellow Labrador, Fantasia had walked beside Karen as her constant companion and service dog for eight years at that point.

So begin your self-editing by searching for these weakling verbs, and kicking them out. When you find was, were, is—simply try to rewrite the sentence. That might mean putting passive voice into the active voice. Sometimes you’ll find a stronger verb. “She was sad,” becomes “She felt sad,” or even better, “Her smile concealed her melancholy.”

We often use “is a thing that” to simply clutter up our writing.

For example, “Exercise is a thing that everyone can do.”

How about: “Everyone can exercise.” Much more concise and much less awkward.

Simply go through your manuscript and search out the words is, was, and were. Then rewrite those sentences. Use this hack once you’ve got a rough draft on paper, and your second draft will shine.

P.S. If you found this helpful, please forward this newsletter to a writing buddy!