Miscellaneous Tips | Revise

            I’m sure most of you revise your works when you write anything for school or business. If not, I’m totally not judging you. Totally not. However if you don’t, you should start picking up the habit of doing so.

            Just writing your story and then publishing it is a big no-no. This is called your rough or first draft; the key word here is draft. It means that it’s a little rough around the edges, not completely refined. No one has ever been able to write a perfect paper, story, or chapter on his or her first try. No one has ever been able to do things perfectly the first time. Trust me. I know you’ll think the chapter you just finished is going to look perfect. But if you come back to it again, you’ll see the small mistakes and errors that you made. And now that you can finally see them, you can change them and fix your mistakes and make that seeming flawless chapter even better.

            This is why having someone else read your work is so very helpful. Having another perspective or two is wonderful in picking out any inconsistencies that may occur. And don’t forget to use the grammar check or spelling check! While it might not catch everything, it’ll find the most obvious mistakes.

            Another way to proofread your work is read it aloud. It’s a very simple method but very effective. There’s just something about reading aloud that helps. Perhaps it's because if you read aloud, you have to make the words flow. I sort of have a love-hate relationship with reading aloud because I know I’ll find something wrong and I will cringe in pain when I find the mistake. Whatever the case, if you can’t get someone to proofread and you feel as if it’s perfect, try to read your piece aloud.