New and beginning authors often (loudly) assert their ability to edit their own work. If you are “editing” your own manuscript, you have a fool for a client. There is no such thing as self-editing—the best you can do is make revisions and admire your work. For that reason, we need other eyes on our work.
As authors, we see what we intended to write rather than what was written. We misread clumsy sentences and overlook words that are missing or are included twice in a row. If you are in a critique group, you have a great resource in your fellow authors—they will spot things you have overlooked your work just as you do in theirs.
The first draft of any manuscript is the story as it flowed out of your mind and onto the paper. Yes, there is life and energy in your words, but your manuscript is not publishable at…
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
You can go a long way in self-editing. It partly depends on your background, and your ability to cynically analyse something as if you had nothing to do with it. Plus, search and destroy as you say. And read it out loud (preferably to a recording device) and discover how much simply doesn’t make sense. And then…. you still need to send it to someone whose grammar sense is even more acute than your own, and who never, ever, puts a comma or semi-colon in the wrong place, and who will ask “why did the green thing is ch 2 turn brown by ch 6?” or similar.
Sigh.
Thank you, editors and beta readers everywhere.
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and I still missed a typo in that…
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😄😄😄
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Because we’re human ♥
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👍😃
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😃
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I am the worst at self-editing but I am a good editor. Each client is so different–some are really agreaable and some are a little touchy. I’ve had clients who refused to place commas where I suggest because they feel it is their voice to write without them. I feel sure the casual reader doesn’t really notice, but the editor in my soul really likes those pauses between clauses, lol!
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This… cannot be said too often.
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Agreed, Will 👍😃
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I totally think someone else needs to edit your work. I know for me, it’s a must. We miss our own mistakes. Great article! 🙂
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Agreed, Koko 😀
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Thank you for the reblog, Chris 🙂 I hope you are staying cool and having a great week.
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Cold more like, Connie – we’re still waiting for Summer to arrive 😄
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