Self-editing tip: How to read your own work more effectively
Ever struggle to get distance you need to effectively read and critique your own work? Like Hemingway, I believe that rewriting is the key to producing good writing. But many writers despise and dread self-editing! In this blog series, I’ll be sharing tips to make the...
Revision mindset hack: Use your e-reader
Today I have a tip for writers that is one part self-editing tool, one part mindset hack. Many writers struggle with revision. This is my favorite self-editing tool when I’m feeling stuck in the rewriting process. It’s a simple way to inject some ease into the task...
To spark your creativity, tap into your desire
Desire is the key to almost everything linked with our creativity. It’s also part of what makes setting goals intimidating! When we think about doing something new—whether that’s starting a new project, taking a course, or changing something about our personality—that...
Finding the motivation to write
When you’re thinking about creating a writing routine, what tools come to mind? Where is your source of motivation—deadlines or supports from the outside? Or a desire to create that comes from within?External motivation External motivators are structures in the...
Self-editing tip: How to read your own work more effectively
Self-editing tip: How to read your own work more effectively
Ever struggle to get distance you need to effectively read and critique your own work?
Like Hemingway, I believe that rewriting is the key to producing good writing. But many writers despise and dread self-editing! In this blog series, I’ll be sharing tips to make the revision process more enjoyable and productive.
During revision, it’s not the act of reading itself that is difficult. The challenge is stepping away from your own writing so you can see the work as it is. Our vision can fail us. As writers, we live so closely with the ideas in our work that we often see on the screen what we meant to say rather than what actually appears on the page.
Sitting down to edit brings up Feelings.
And then there are those writing Feelings with a capital F. As creatives, we all have them! Some days we feel grandiose (and so have no need of an editor, who will just dampen our brilliance, thank you very much); other days we feel completely inadequate (so why even bother with another pass on this piece of garbage?).
The reality of what you produce in an early draft is probably somewhere in between. This post will guide you toward a more neutral emotional space so you can revise more productively.
My favorite hack for getting the distance I need to catch errors and feel whether my writing resonates as it should is to change the medium where I view my work. I like to send my work in progress to my e-reader. For more about how to do this, check out my previous post, Revision mindset hack: Use your e-reader.
Shift from editor to reader
For this process, you are going to take off your writer’s cap for a bit and interact with your work from the point of view of a reader. Hopefully, this will make self-editing more relaxing for you! We have a much warmer relationship with the practice of reading than we do with the act of editing. And with a portable e-reader, you can edit anywhere you feel comfortable.
Going in with a pen and looking for what’s wrong activates the judgmental part of our brains, and it’s a quick jump from there to second guessing and self-doubt. “Is this good enough? Why do I bother?” It’s no wonder that many writers dread this step!
Instead of seeking out mistakes, try concentrating on sound and feeling. Let yourself receive the music of your words and notice what emotions they bring up in you.
Do a mini developmental edit
For this first step, you’ll need your e-reader uploaded with the document you want to edit, a notebook, and your favorite pen. To start, you’re just going to read your piece through silently. Easy, right?
As you read, look for images or words that move you. In the e-reader, you can highlight a word or phrase that stirs feelings or bookmark a page–things you might do with a beloved book that you own. If you feel the urge to delete anything, jot it down in your notebook and then return to the flow of reading.
If ideas for changes occur to you, write them down in your notebook as well. Don’t write anything in the comments section of your e-reader.
When you get to the end of the draft, take a moment to reflect on what emotions the piece evoked in you as a reader. Set a timer for 4 minutes and write them down. Did you feel what you as the writer are hoping your audience will experience from this particular scene or chapter? Note that as well.
Look at that! You’ve just done a miniature developmental self-edit.
Let it marinate
Congrats! That is enough editing work for one day. Put your e-reader away in a special place, wherever you keep the books you love. If more impressions or ideas for changes come to you throughout the day, write them down. Tomorrow, when you are ready, you can bring your notes to the computer for traditional revision.
Copyedit your own work: The power of reading aloud
You can repeat this process for self-edits at the sentence level. This step is about the sound, shape, and rhythm of your lines. As before, you’ll send your revised draft to your e-reader. But instead of working silently, you’re going to read your piece to yourself out loud.
You’re going to hear the words come back to you–you will be both reader and listener. This is one of the surest ways to notice things at the level of sentence structure and word choice that could use some massaging.
Any sentence that trips you up as you read your work aloud could use a little editing love.
As you read, note anything that jars. Write down any spot where something sounds off to your ear, any words or phrases that leave you tongue twisted.
Again, you can highlight or bookmark in the e-book, but resist the urge to write comments in there. Handwrite your impressions in your notebook.
Et voilà. You have just done a miniature line edit and copyedit while leaving your draft on the e-reader intact.
This time, feel free to move immediately to your computer to make revisions while your impressions are fresh.
Have a manuscript that needs editing?
Have self-editing strategies and beta readers taken you as far as you can go on your own for your novel or memoir? Come see if my editing services are a good fit!
I offer developmental editing for romance, young adult, and contemporary novels and copyediting for creative nonfiction.
Joy Hoppenot
Editor & Creativity Coach
Joy is an American expat living in France, mother of two, and creative nonfiction writer. As an editor and creativity coach, she helps creative writers start their work, improve and finish their writing, and share their books with the world. Joy has a BA in English literature and 14 years of experience editing for publishing houses and independent writers.
Revision mindset hack: Use your e-reader
Revision mindset hack: Use your e-reader
Today I have a tip for writers that is one part self-editing tool, one part mindset hack.
Many writers struggle with revision. This is my favorite self-editing tool when I’m feeling stuck in the rewriting process. It’s a simple way to inject some ease into the task and finish a draft for good.
This approach is ideal when you have a finished draft (of any length) of an essay, short story, or book chapter.
Most writers edit their work either on the computer or by hand after printing a file out. Both of these are effective strategies that have their place later in the editing process. But neither really shakes up how we feel about the task.
How would you like to change your relationship to your work and your vision of who you are as a writer?
Your work belongs here:
Shift your perspective from critic to reader
Self-edits are often done from the perspective of an editor or teacher, the sort of people whose job is to look for flaws and mistakes. Centering ourselves in this point of view puts us back in a deeply rooted mindset from childhood. It may bring up fear of failure, of the red pen slashing across our creations, of bad grades.
Instead, you are going to interact with your words purely as a reader. Reading is an activity that most writers love. It is linked with pleasure, excitement, relaxation—positive feelings. That’s the first mental shift: from fear to love.
Shift your editing vibe from one of fear or dread to one of love.
Visualize yourself as an author
I do this by sending the document of my draft to my e-reader.
This is such a small thing, but the experience of reading your words in the same format and in the same place that you read published books by successful authors moves you that much closer to imagining your work on the shelf of a bookstore or library. You’ll see your document crop us right next to books you’ve purchased, those written by authors who are published. Your e-reader library becomes a mini vision board.
Change your environment
Are you able to be objective enough to edit your own writing? It’s totally normal for writers to be enmeshed emotionally with their work. We have to care deeply to produce something that others will care to read.
But given that, how can we be good judges of our writing?
In addition to changing the medium you use to look at the work, try changing the physical space where you edit. Just as rereading in the medium where I’ve been writing (either on the computer or the notebook) doesn’t give me the distance I need, staying at my desk or even in the same room where I write keeps me in that mindset.
Now that your draft is on your e-reader, you can go anywhere! Take your editing somewhere you feel relaxed. Nurture yourself through the editing process by holing up in the coziest space in your home. Or go outdoors to get inspired–under a tree, by running water, surrounded by natural color.
A comfortable environment will help you switch gears mentally, without even trying!
How do I make all these devices talk to one another?
How to send your draft to your e-reader
Do you have a Kindle, a Kobo, a Nook? I use Kindle, and so do most of the writers I polled on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Kindle offers a handy web extension for download. With that button, I can send any document (Word, PDF) from my computer to my Kindle account, where I can read it on any device that has the Kindle app.
This article explains how to send documents to Kindle and Kobo readers.
If you have a Nook, you can email documents to your device.
For other e-readers, you may need to do a bit of research. Ten years ago, I did manual transfers between devices with a cable. If you can’t find a digital shortcut, the good old methods take a little more time, but they still work!
Once your document is uploaded to your device, check out part II of this self-editing strategy: How to read your own work more effectively.
Joy Hoppenot
Editor & Creativity Coach
Joy is an American expat living in France, mother of two, and creative nonfiction writer. As an editor and creativity coach, she helps creative writers start their work, improve and finish their writing, and share their books with the world. Joy has a BA in English literature and 14 years of experience editing for publishing houses and independent writers.
To spark your creativity, tap into your desire
To spark your creativity, tap into your desire
Desire is the key to almost everything linked with our creativity. It’s also part of what makes setting goals intimidating!
When we think about doing something new—whether that’s starting a new project, taking a course, or changing something about our personality—that process puts us squarely in front of a sticky question:
What do I want?
This can be freaking terrifying depending on what our relationship with desire is. Even the word itself (dee saaaare … gross, right?) might make us a little bit squeamish.
If you’re feeling icked out by my preliminary question, you’re not alone. There’s so much cultural baggage around the concept of want!
What’s our deal with desire?
Depending on your background, you might have grown up thinking desire is:
- Embarrassing
- Childish
- Taboo/private
- Selfish
- Destructive
- Even immoral
Oof, that’s a whole lot of baggage for one little word. Let’s break it down!
Old hang-ups hindering your creativity?
Stuck in your creative work? Are you facing emotional roadblocks like writer’s block and the inner critic? Or maybe you need some accountability to help you move forward with a writing project.
Creativity coaching can help!
Click here for info on my coaching services for writers.
Social conditioning around want
You might think it’s embarrassing to want something badly. It’s vulnerable to show people that lack and our ambition for more.
It might seem childish, like that gimme gimme impulse kids have in toy aisles and candy stores. Something we should have outgrown a long time ago.
Maybe you associate desire primarily with sex. So depending on your upbringing, the idea could feel like too private to acknowledge or even taboo.
People may have told us it is selfish to want things, to put ourselves first.
And it’s a quick leap from there to believing that desire is destructive, that it will hurt other people.
For some people, a religious or spiritual culture may have made us feel that desire is immoral, that good people are grateful for what they have and don’t reach for more.
Even people who don’t have these hang-ups are still afraid of the feeling of want.
Some folks try to protect themselves from future hurt and disappointment by just not wanting anything at all in the first place. “What if I let myself feel that, like really truly wish for something and go for it, but then find out that it’s impossible? What if I can’t have it? I would be devastated.”
Parents, caregivers, and general people pleasers will relate to this next one. (Where are my Twos on the Enneagram?)
Maybe you spend so much time taking care of others’ needs that your own desire has become straight-up foreign, forgotten.
Are your needs so far down the priority list that you draw a huge blank when you go to ask, “What do I want? Wait, what do I want?”
Responding to a never-ending list of external demands and crises drains our creative energy.
Starting new: You have permission
Before you can set goals, you may need to do some belief work to give yourself permission to feel desire in the first place.
Do you believe that you’re allowed to do your creative work? To want something big? If you are waiting for someone to give you the green light to dream, you might be stuck in limbo for a while.
Why? So many people have crushed their desire to dream and to take risks (see all those cultural taboos above) that they are jealous of people who let themselves go there. Or they might be scared of us. Either way, you are going to have to give yourself permission.
Gone are the days of asking politely for a pass or permission slip before you meet your own needs. Now you have the power to choose your priorities!
Practice these mantras of self-authorization (or some variation that speaks to you):
I am allowed to do my creative work.
I have permission to dream big.
My desire is a force for good.
Choose the one that feels the most dangerous and either say it aloud or write in out in a journal until it shifts into a place of truth inside you. From there, you’ll be ready to (re)start your creative work.
The good news is that you don’t need a blazing fire of desire to start something new. To begin a project, all you need is a spark.
Choose the one that feels the most dangerous and either say it aloud or write in out in a journal until it shifts into a place of truth inside you. From there, you’ll be ready to (re)start your creative work.
The good news is that you don’t need a blazing fire of desire to start something new. To begin a project, all you need is a spark.
Joy Hoppenot
Editor & Creativity Coach
Joy is an American expat living in France, mother of two, and creative nonfiction writer. As an editor and creativity coach, she helps creative writers start their work, improve and finish their writing, and share their books with the world. Joy has a BA in English literature and 14 years of experience editing for publishing houses and independent writers.
Finding the motivation to write
Finding the motivation to write
When you’re thinking about creating a writing routine, what tools come to mind? Where is your source of motivation—deadlines or supports from the outside? Or a desire to create that comes from within?
External motivation
External motivators are structures in the outside world that keep us on track to meet our goals. I’m talking your workshops and classes, writing buddies—anything that gives you deadlines and someone to report to will help you make good on a project you’ve decided to do.
Pros and cons of seeking out external support
Of course, setting goals and creating systems of accountability to help you meet those goals are key to moving forward with your writing. These external motivators can be really effective, depending on your personality.
But—there’s always a but, right?
Strict deadlines and grueling challenges are always not the most conducive to creativity. Especially over the long term.
Why? Because people are not machines.
And writers, particularly creative writer types, are sensitive. We want to be moved. We need to feel things to make art!
Pushing yourself to create x pieces in x weeks just for the sake of finishing a challenge can make your writing cliché or superficial. Not only that, without a strong sense of why we are making this project, the goal of hitting a set number of words each day is not enough. That sort of daily writing practice can leave us feeling blah, despairing about work that feels flat, and wondering what on earth we were thinking imagining we could be writers. Sound familiar?
Want some help on a writing goal?
Stuck in your creative work? Are you facing emotional roadblocks like writer’s block and the inner critic? Or maybe you need some accountability to help you move forward with a writing project.
Creativity coaching can help!
Click here for info on my coaching services for writers.
A structure to fit your personality
Some people thrive in structures of external accountability. They love a writing class or a challenge. NaNoWriMo people, I’m talking to you! And these can work great in the short term, but they are not a perfect fit for everyone. (If this works well for you, more power to you!)
Others (and I’m talking about me now) go into robot mode to meet the deadlines. We begin full of enthusiasm and good intentions—we’ve got our forum buddies, we’ve got our plans mapped out. We manage to rise to the challenge for a month and freaking write that novel or those 28 flash pieces in 28 days. But by the end, we’re just kind of limping across the finish line. We find ourselves completely exhausted. Personally, after something like that, I don’t feel like writing again for weeks again or maybe even another month. After a job that grueling, I need to recover.
Still others hit the wall of writer’s block in the middle of a challenge. Writing just for the sake of meeting a deadline loses its sense—they don’t know what they are writing about anymore. And more importantly, they are not sure why they are writing. What is the point? They risk coming out of the challenge on the cusp of an existential artist’s crisis, and will need to spend a lot of time working through feelings of failure and inadequacy before they feel brave enough to write again.
Internal motivation: Fuel your writing over the long term
Now I don’t want to give you the impression that I hate deadlines. They are super important! Personally, as a mother of two young kids, I can’t write without them. But to consistently write for months at a time, I need to tap into my passion. My obsession, even. I need to be sure I’m working with topics that get me up out of bed early, that make me feel excited to open my notebook or computer.
To be able to write regularly and produce work that is deep and interesting—to ourselves and to the readers we want to reach—we also need to cultivate our internal motivation.
Locate your personal sense of meaning
One way to think about this is to focus on choosing projects that are personally meaningful to us. What do I mean, exactly? These are projects connected with an idea or theme that sparks a strong feeling for you. Really, any feeling will do!
We have got to care deeply about what we write in order to produce work that other people will be interested in and inspired by.
And your passion and curiosity—or whatever feeling is sparking for you, whatever the deeper undercurrent may be—will sustain you on those hard days full of logistical challenges. Because there will always be a sick kid, a problem at the day job, or a dark mood. Don’t let these setbacks derail your writing routine!
Freewrite to spark your passion
Here’s a quick freewriting exercise if you’d like help generating a list of personal themes. I call mine a Spark List or My List of Obsessions. I keep mine in the back of my notebook to come back to on days when inspiration is running a little low. Respond with the first answer that comes to mind. ?
I am currently feeling:
- curious about …
- excited about …
- passionate about …
- obsessed with …
- delighted by …
- enraged by …
- confused by …
- sustained by …
- inspired by …
Are any of these ideas or themes playing out in your writing at the moment?
Joy Hoppenot
Editor & Creativity Coach
Joy is an American expat living in France, mother of two, and creative nonfiction writer. As an editor and creativity coach, she helps creative writers start their work, improve and finish their writing, and share their books with the world. Joy has a BA in English literature and 14 years of experience editing for publishing houses and independent writers.
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Cu laudem molestie deserunt cum, impetus verterem eum at. Vel ex tota probo luptatum, vel invidunt argumentum cu. Nibh adolescens nec ex, ea mazim assueverit est. Brute eleifend deterruisset qui te, vix feugiat inermis ex. Enim mundi sonet et cum. Eos laoreet appareat torquatos ea, mel ad simul cetero numquam, ne ius aeque molestie aliquando.
Cu laudem molestie deserunt cum, impetus verterem eum at. Vel ex tota probo luptatum, vel invidunt argumentum cu. Nibh adolescens nec ex, ea mazim assueverit est. Brute eleifend deterruisset qui te, vix feugiat inermis ex. Enim mundi sonet et cum. Eos laoreet appareat torquatos ea, mel ad simul cetero numquam, ne ius aeque molestie aliquando.
Cu laudem molestie deserunt cum, impetus verterem eum at. Vel ex tota probo luptatum, vel invidunt argumentum cu. Nibh adolescens nec ex, ea mazim assueverit est. Brute eleifend deterruisset qui te, vix feugiat inermis ex. Enim mundi sonet et cum. Eos laoreet appareat torquatos ea, mel ad simul cetero numquam, ne ius aeque molestie aliquando.
Cu laudem molestie deserunt cum, impetus verterem eum at. Vel ex tota probo luptatum, vel invidunt argumentum cu. Nibh adolescens nec ex, ea mazim assueverit est. Brute eleifend deterruisset qui te, vix feugiat inermis ex. Enim mundi sonet et cum. Eos laoreet appareat torquatos ea, mel ad simul cetero numquam, ne ius aeque molestie aliquando.
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