BlackHippyChick Day: How to Polish Your Work

There are several steps to achieving a worthwhile piece of work. Many of those stages are fun. Writing first drafts is fun. Getting feedback is fun. Imagining the prospect of publication is fun. Proofreading and polishing, on the other hand, are a lot like washing the dishes. Just because you had a tasty meal, doesn’t mean cleaning up feels interesting or necessary.

But it matters.

Every word must be in its place performing as much work as possible. All extraneous words must be cleared away. All errors must be repaired. All clutter and wordiness must be annihilated. This is as much a part of writing as producing a first draft. Until polishing becomes second nature, you will never graduate to a new tier of mastery.

Presenting unpolished work to readers is like preparing a meal with a rusty, filthy knife. You won’t retain readers, and you won’t be published. If you’re hoping for either of those things, you must polish until it becomes so ingrained that your first drafts barely need polishing anymore. So what’s entailed?

My process goes like this:

I write my first draft. I give it a proofread for obvious errors before setting it aside.

Once morning has come, I reread that draft to make sure it’s as effective as I thought it was. I check that all my sentences are perfect. I remove redundant prose and irrational arguments. I check my punctuation, grammar, and tenses. I check if my paragraph breaks are in the right place and delete needless adjectives. I used to use the Hemingway app but I’ve internalised it, now, so I can usually pick up the problems it highlights on my own. If I’m having a terrible writing day, I still defer to Hemingway, though. I also use Grammarly to check everything I write.

Once I’ve done a thorough edit for style and substance, I do another proofread for grammar and typos.

Then I do another. I often pick up mistakes on a fourth read that I didn’t notice on a third.

If the piece I wrote is destined for an important book, I now pass it through a trusted friend for feedback. Once I have their notes, I do yet another edit. Then I take the draft back to that friend to make sure I’ve resolved all the problems they picked up.
I file the writing away if I don’t have a deadline on it. When I revisit it in a week’s or month’s time, I do yet another proofread. And I’m still picking up errors, guys. Unless you’re a seasoned editor, you’re going to miss things repeatedly. Those little typos are good at hiding.

All writers should be checking their work for obscurities, mixed metaphors, and clutter. This is as crucial as getting a first draft out. Handing unedited work to another human is like putting a plate of unwashed carrots and celery in front of a diner. Raw work is valuable to you alone. If others are going to benefit from it, you must cook it. You must edit and polish it.