5 Most Common Mistakes When Self-Editing: How to Avoid Them

Self-editing is an essential part of the writing process. After the first draft is complete, a writer must review and revise their work to ensure clarity, coherence, and polish. However, self-editing can be challenging, especially when you’re deeply attached to your work. Many writers, whether they’re beginners or experienced, fall into common pitfalls that can undermine the quality of their writing. Understanding these mistakes and learning how to avoid them can significantly improve your final product.

In this article, we will explore the five most common mistakes writers make when self-editing and provide strategies to avoid them, ensuring that your writing is polished, professional, and ready for publication.

1. Failing to Create Distance Before Editing

One of the biggest mistakes writers make when self-editing is diving into revisions immediately after finishing the first draft. While the impulse to perfect your work as soon as possible is understandable, this approach can backfire. When you’re too close to your writing, it’s difficult to see it objectively. You may overlook mistakes, gloss over unclear passages, or be too emotionally attached to certain sections to cut them.

The Importance of Distance

Creating distance between yourself and your writing is essential for effective self-editing. Distance allows you to approach your work with fresh eyes, making it easier to spot errors and weaknesses. When you’ve spent hours or days immersed in your writing, your brain becomes too familiar with the text, making it harder to identify flaws. By taking a break before editing, you give your mind time to reset, which helps you read your work as a critical outsider rather than the person who wrote it.

How to Avoid This Mistake

The best way to avoid this mistake is to schedule a break between finishing your draft and starting the editing process. The length of this break can vary depending on your timeline, but ideally, you should wait at least a day or two before returning to your work. If you have more time, a week or longer can provide even more distance. During this break, try to distract yourself with other activities—reading, exercising, or working on a different project—so that you can come back to your writing with a fresh perspective.

Example:

You’ve just completed the first draft of your short story. Instead of jumping straight into edits, set it aside for three days. During this time, you could read a novel, go for long walks, or work on a different creative project. When you return to your short story after the break, you’ll likely notice areas for improvement that you missed before.

2. Overlooking Structural Issues

Another common mistake in self-editing is focusing too much on sentence-level corrections—grammar, spelling, and punctuation—while neglecting larger structural issues. It’s tempting to polish the prose immediately, but if the overall structure of your piece is flawed, no amount of line editing will save it.

The Importance of Structure

Good writing isn’t just about crafting beautiful sentences; it’s about creating a coherent and logical flow of ideas. Structural issues can manifest in various ways, such as inconsistent pacing, weak transitions, or disorganized paragraphs. If your piece lacks a clear structure, readers may struggle to follow your argument or narrative, even if your prose is well-written.

Before diving into line editing, it’s crucial to step back and assess the overall structure of your work. Are your ideas presented in a logical order? Does each section or chapter contribute to the overall purpose of the piece? Are there any redundant or off-topic sections that need to be cut or revised? Addressing these questions will help you strengthen the foundation of your writing.

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid overlooking structural issues, begin your self-editing process with a macro-level review. Read through your entire piece and focus on the big picture. Create an outline or reverse outline to map out the structure of your work and identify any gaps or inconsistencies. You can also try reading your work aloud to see if the flow feels natural or if certain sections feel out of place.

Once you’ve addressed the structure, you can move on to sentence-level edits with the confidence that your writing has a solid foundation.

Example:

You’re editing an essay, and your initial impulse is to fix grammar errors and improve your word choice. However, before doing that, you review the overall structure and realize that your third paragraph introduces a new idea that doesn’t flow well from the previous sections. By reorganizing your paragraphs and improving transitions, you create a stronger and more cohesive essay before focusing on sentence-level details.

3. Being Reluctant to Cut Unnecessary Content

One of the hardest parts of self-editing is cutting content, especially when you’re attached to certain sentences, paragraphs, or scenes. Many writers fall into the trap of keeping unnecessary content simply because they like how it sounds or because they put significant effort into writing it. However, this reluctance to cut can lead to bloated, unfocused writing.

The Importance of Conciseness

Good writing is concise and purposeful. Every sentence should serve a function, whether it’s advancing the plot, deepening character development, or clarifying an argument. Unnecessary content can slow down the pacing, confuse the reader, or dilute the impact of your key points. Being willing to cut what doesn’t serve your writing will result in a stronger, more focused piece.

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid the mistake of holding on to unnecessary content, approach your editing with a ruthless mindset. Ask yourself whether each sentence, paragraph, or scene is essential to your piece. Does it contribute to your overall message or story? If the answer is no, consider cutting it, even if you’re fond of it. Remember that self-editing is about making your writing as strong as possible, and sometimes that means letting go of parts that don’t add value.

One useful strategy is to create a “cutting file” where you can paste any sentences or sections you remove from your draft. This way, you won’t feel like you’re losing your work entirely—you’re just setting it aside for potential use in the future.

Example:

You’re editing a novel, and there’s a scene that you love because of its vivid description. However, upon reflection, you realize that the scene doesn’t contribute to the plot or character development. You reluctantly cut the scene but save it in a separate document for potential use in another project. The result is a tighter, more focused narrative.

4. Relying Too Heavily on Spellcheck and Grammar Tools

While spellcheck and grammar tools can be helpful, relying on them too heavily is a common self-editing mistake. These tools are designed to catch basic spelling and grammar errors, but they are not perfect and can miss more subtle issues. Additionally, they may suggest changes that are technically correct but don’t align with the tone or style of your writing.

The Limitations of Automated Tools

Automated editing tools often struggle with context. They may flag a grammatically correct sentence as incorrect or fail to catch a nuanced mistake. For example, homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings, like “their” and “there”) can easily slip past spellcheck. Grammar tools may also suggest changes that could make your writing sound awkward or overly formal.

While these tools can serve as a helpful first pass, they should not replace a thorough, manual review of your writing. Your judgment and understanding of context are crucial for producing high-quality work.

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid over-reliance on spellcheck and grammar tools, use them as a starting point but don’t stop there. After running your writing through these tools, take the time to read through your work carefully, paying attention to context and flow. Look for issues that automated tools might miss, such as word repetition, awkward phrasing, or inconsistent tone.

Additionally, consider using multiple tools for a more comprehensive review. For example, you might run your document through both Grammarly and Hemingway Editor to catch different types of issues. However, always rely on your own judgment to make the final decisions.

Example:

After finishing an article, you run it through a grammar tool that suggests changing a sentence for clarity. Upon review, you realize that while the suggestion is grammatically correct, it changes the tone of your writing in a way that doesn’t fit the overall piece. You choose to keep your original sentence because it better reflects your intended style.

5. Editing While Writing

One of the most common mistakes writers make is editing while they write. This often results from a desire to perfect each sentence before moving on to the next. However, editing while writing can disrupt your creative flow, slow down your progress, and lead to frustration. It can also result in overly polished but disjointed sections that don’t work well together in the overall piece.

The Importance of Separating Writing and Editing

Writing and editing are two distinct processes that require different mindsets. Writing is a creative process that involves generating ideas and getting them down on paper. Editing, on the other hand, is a critical process that involves refining those ideas and improving clarity. When you try to do both simultaneously, you can inhibit your creativity and make it harder to complete your draft.

By separating writing and editing, you allow yourself the freedom to write without judgment during the drafting phase. This approach encourages you to get your ideas out quickly, without worrying about perfection. You can then return to your draft later with a more critical eye and focus on making improvements during the editing phase.

How to Avoid This Mistake

To avoid the mistake of editing while writing, set clear boundaries between your writing and editing sessions. When you’re in the drafting phase, give yourself permission to write freely without stopping to correct every mistake. If you find yourself getting stuck on a particular sentence, make a note to come back to it later and keep writing.

You can also try using a timer to enforce this separation. For example, set

 a timer for 30 minutes of uninterrupted writing, followed by a short break, and then another session of focused editing. This approach helps you stay in the creative flow while ensuring that you still dedicate time to polishing your work.

Example:

You’re working on a blog post, but you keep stopping to tweak sentences and fix minor grammar errors. This slows down your progress and makes you feel frustrated. To combat this, you decide to write the entire first draft without making any edits. Once the draft is complete, you schedule a separate editing session to refine your writing.

Conclusion

Self-editing is a crucial step in the writing process, but it’s easy to fall into common pitfalls that can hinder your progress and weaken your work. By creating distance before editing, focusing on structural issues, being willing to cut unnecessary content, not relying too heavily on automated tools, and separating writing from editing, you can avoid these mistakes and produce stronger, more polished writing.