Whether you are an independent publisher looking to edit your own work prior to hitting the ‘publish’ button or simply a writer looking to make your work better, editing is one of the most vital, useful skills you can have. It’s something that all writers need to do to some extent, and very often editing is the process that takes our work from something that’s OK to something that’s genuinely good.

It’s always worth trying to get better at editing, not least because without it, our writing would end up a bit of a mess. With this in mind, here are seven ideas of ways you could become a better editor.

Reflect on what you read

Sometimes, it’s easier to be critical of other people’s work rather than your own, so the next time you read a book, do so with the eye of an editor. If you were asked to give the book an edit, what would you do? What would you cut, if anything? What works and what doesn’t? Of course, the vast majority of published books out there have already been well edited (hopefully), so you might not find much to quibble with, but it’s still a useful exercise.

Practice on others

Related to the above point is the idea of practising on other people’s unpublished work. Many writers are in writing groups that are there to offer advice and support to fellow scribes, and they can be a great way to hone your constructive editing skills before taking the plunge on your own work.

Also, if other people in your group are going over your work, it can also act as an opportunity for you to see what others think of your writing and where you tend to go wrong – information that could be very useful for your future editing endeavours.

Be one step removed

Removing yourself from your work can be hard, especially when you may well have just spent months slaving over a draft of a novel – but it’s necessary. You can’t edit your writing properly if you are seeing it through rose tinted glasses. Try and develop a critical stance, and be ruthless.

Remember – deleting your favourite scene from one piece of work because it’s not doing what you hoped it would doesn’t mean you can’t ever use it again. Sometimes you have to lose sections that you love in order to improve the whole.

Don’t just dive straight in

Editing can also be improved by waiting a while before you dive in; the distance of time and space to think can make it easier to spot the flaws in your work and read it as though from the point of view of a reader.

Read things aloud

This is particularly true of dialogue: if it doesn’t sound good when you read it out loud, it probably needs some work to get it just right. Passages of prose can also benefit from being read out loud while you’re editing; look for details such as commas in the right places, emphasis on the right words, and the general flow of the text, all of which you can often get a better feel of through speech than you might be able to through reading silently.

Put in the hours

Like anything else to do with writing, editing is a skill that takes time to hone. Practice it, and take your time over it. A rushed editing job could do more harm than good, so make sure you give yourself plenty of space to do it properly.

Know when you need help

Finally, one of the biggest skills of an editor – particularly when you are editing your own writing – is to know when you need another pair of eyes. If you’ve simply spent too long going over your writing or can see the problems but are having trouble coming up with solutions, a second editor to go over the work can be just what you need.

What are your tips for becoming a better editor?