When Should You Share Your Writing? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

Think of a story that you loved reading. Remember how hard the protagonist worked towards the goal? Remember the hardships the hero had to face and conquer before a resolution was reached?

Did you stop reading when the conflict increased? No, that’s the best part!

Now think of writing your story in the same way as a story. Writing is a journey full of multiple drafts, red pens and pondering where to go next.

And journeys are often an experience that’s shared. But when should you share your writing?

National Proofreading Day: What It Is

3 Ways to Use Ellipses . . . Correctly

If punctuation had personality, the period would be the logical one, the comma calculated, the semi-colon the rambler and the colon attention-grabbing.

And the ellipsis? That’s our mysterious one.

What is the ellipsis holding back? What words will we never see in that quoted passage? And why were those words dropped in the first place?

Most importantly, how do we use the ellipsis correctly? Keep reading.

When Do You Capitalize After a Colon?

If you ask two writers this question, you probably wouldn’t receive the same response. There isn’t a straightforward answer when it comes to figuring out when to capitalize after a colon.

While often used like an em dash or a semi-colon, the colon has multiple uses to both keep our sentences and numbers in line. But when do we capitalize the word that follows it?

Fortunately, there are tricks to remembering when to capitalize after a colon.

Life After NaNoWriMo: What You Can Do Next

You won National Novel Writing Month! Now what?

Life after NaNoWriMo can be confusing and anticlimactic—but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s what you can do over the next six months to keep your novel-in-progress in motion.

What Your Inner Editor is Doing to Your Writing

Can’t write your story because of that voice inside your head telling you to stop and fix your work? Here’s why your inner editor is holding you back—and what you can do about it.

Editing vs. Revising: The Real Difference

You’ve reached the point in the writing process where it’s time to make some serious changes. Congratulations!

Credit: littlepieceoftape.blogspot.com

Now it’s time to pick up that red pen and make some small and big alterations to your writing. This is called the editing process and the revision process.

Here’s where it gets confusing. The terms editing and revising are often used interchangeably. Even I’m guilty of doing that.

But there are key differences between editing and revising. I like to refer to this chart:

But I can also spell it out.

The Truth About Editing

Editing is about making the surface of the words nice and shiny. It’s like washing your car after driving across the country.

Editing means:

Capitalizing proper nouns such as names, places, titles and months
Correcting the use of nouns and verbs in sentences
Adding or removing punctuation such as periods, quotation marks, commas and apostrophes
Fixing misspelled words and awkward phrases
Deleting unnecessary words

The Truth About Revising

Revision takes editing beyond the surface level. Revising requires you to focus on the meaning of the words. To put it in another way, revising is like popping the hood on your car to see why it makes that funny noise.

Unlike the editing process, there are two levels to the revision process. That’s because, like a car, fixing that funny noise can lead to another leak you can’t see.

The first level of revising means:

Adding or removing sentences
Moving sentences or paragraphs to earlier or later in the writing
Improving transitions
Switching sentences from passive to active voice

The second level of the revising process focuses on the big picture of your writing. It’s about making sure that all the parts are in the right places and that it all flows coherently.

The second level of revising (for an essay or college paper) means:

Stating the thesis clearly
Ensuring all paragraphs support the thesis
Fact-checking all sources
Strengthening your argument
Interweaving arguments that challenge your thesis and disproving their views

The second level of revising (for a narrative) means:

Strengthening the plot
Developing your characters
Heightening the action and dialogue
Incorporating believable dialogue, actions and characters
Creating the connection between reader and story (so that readers care about the story)

So, Does Editing Or Revising Come First?

There’s a lot of debate on this subject. And the right answer hasn’t been established yet.

Here’s what I recommend: Start in reverse. Revise your writing by looking at the big picture. Then revise for sentence flow and order. Wrap it up with editing every letter and punctuation mark.

I find this way saves a lot of time. Why spend hours capitalizing words if you end up cutting out that entire paragraph tomorrow?

Sometimes, the editing and revising process overlaps. I often fix the spelling of a word or shift passive into active voice while I’m heightening the action of a scene.

Finding what works for you takes time as well as some trial and error. Even our processes can use some revising and editing.

What do you think the real difference is between revising and editing? Share your thoughts below.

K.L.Wightman

Let's Talk Content Marketing & Creative Writing

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