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An Editing Checklist For Writers
Use this editing checklist for writers when you’re rewriting your book or short story.
Are you thinking about editing your own copy? Sometimes, we have to do this ourselves.
At Writers Write, we give our students a Rewriting Checklist as part of our Writers Write course. This helps to correct any obvious errors the writer may have made.
There are four types of book editing – developmental, substantive, line, and proofreading.
Unfortunately, we aren’t all able to afford the services of professionals who could do this for us.
The checklist below will help you correct common errors writers make in their first drafts.
[Top Tip: If you need practical help with your grammar, buy The Complete Grammar Workbook.]
Source for Checklist
Are you about to edit your book? You may enjoy these useful posts:
- 12-Steps to Self-Editing – your stress-free guide to preparing a manuscript
- How to rewrite and revise your manuscript – I’ve learnt to stop
- Rewriting – A Checklist for Authors
You may also enjoy these useful posts:
- 5 Guaranteed Ways To Bore Your Reader
- 17 Ways To Make your Novel More Memorable
- 3 Simple Ways To Get Your Hero To Make A Stand
If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course.
Posted on: 10th November 2014
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9 thoughts on “An Editing Checklist For Writers”
Hi Amanda,
Thank you for this and all your very helpful posts.
Just one tiny niggle … I don’t know why, or perhaps refuse to accept, that the passive voice is a bad thing. It crops up time and again. Is it American, while I am British? I don’t think so. Did Stephen King start it? Perhaps (and he is well worthy of emulation. I insist that the passive has its place in writing – when the thing-done-to is the subject of the explanatory sentence; when the culprit is unknown, etc.
My two-penn’orth for the day,
Best wishes, Phil
Hi Phil
It is fine, if it is used sparingly. If you overuse it, it is poor writing. It has nothing to do with being British or American or South African.
Read this article, and you will see it is a very British thing to use the active voice – if you want your writing to be read.
https://writerswrite.co.za//analysing-agatha-how-to-become-the-best-selling-novelist-of-all-time
Not all modifiers need hyphenation. You might want to explain what decides it.
What is the “ing trap”?
Hi Amanda,
I love your blog. Thank you for helping so many writers. I live in North Texas and share so many of your posts with my readers.
Kathleen
Thank you, Kathleen.
Also…Change ‘All of a sudden’ to ‘Suddenly’.
What are my “tells” and how are they identified?
hi Amanda!
i’m meghana from india..nice to see u on writers writer…
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