1. Four Simple Steps for Editing Your Own Writing Ali Luke @aliventures Ali Luke @aliventures

2. Welcome! Four Simple Steps for Editing Your Own Writing Ali Luke – @aliventures – ali@aliventures.com@aliventures ali@aliventures.com

3. 1.Reading through your piece 2.Editing the big picture 3.Editing the details 4.Using formatting The Four Steps

4. Why? -Create a great first impression -Pillar / guest posts, ebooks -Engage readers -Structure, formatting -Establish reputation for quality -Well-written, no mistakes

5. This Works For… Blog posts, articles, ebooks, free report, newsletter pieces, even short stories, novels… IMPORTANT: Complete first draft

6. Step #1: Reading If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing. William Safire

7. How to Read Your Work On paper, on your e-reader, as a PDF… Especially important for ebooks, launch content, pillar posts, long/important content.

8. Step #2: The Big Picture I leave out the parts that people skip. Elmore Leonard Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. Dr. Samuel Johnson

9. Why? Fix big problems before little ones Structure and content matter Crucial when teaching Going to cover: Blog posts Ebooks Good planning = less editing

10. Blog Posts  Introduction, main body, conclusion?  Right paragraphs, right order? (Add, cut, move.)  One key point?  Call to action

11. Ebooks  Correct order of sections / chapters?  No missing, superfluous, or repetitive information?  Introduction: useful, engaging  Conclusion: summing up, where next  About the Author = CALL TO ACTION

12. Step #3: The Details There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. Fred Rodell Truman Capote

13. Line Editing Tips Separate finding & correcting Use paper (or.pdf) Read out loud Work in short sessions Re-check afterwards

14. Line Editing Checklist  Style/voice Formal, informal, chatty, serious…?  Clear sentences If not, rewrite, or split into two.  Spelling Homophones (write / right), missing words, typos  Consistency Capitalization, hyphens, punctuation

15. Editing Exercise Before you spend months of you’re life writing an ebook, I think that you should make sure there really is an audiance for that e-Book and the very best way to this, in my opinion, is by surveying one’s audiance. Style/voice? Clear sentences? Spelling? Consistency?

16. Exercise & Rewrite Before you spend months of you’re life writing an ebook, I think that you should make sure there really is an audience for that e-Book and the very best way to this, in my opinion, is by surveying one’s audiance. Before you spend months writing an ebook, you should make sure there’s an audience for it. The best way to do this is by surveying your readers.

17. Step #4: Formatting Everything is designed. Few things are designed well. Good design goes to heaven; bad design goes everywhere. Brian Reed Mieke Gerritzen

18. Easy, Quick Tweaks Subheadings Short paragraphs Bullet-points Bold text

19. More Involved Tweaks Blockquotes Boxes Images(s) Graphics and icons

20. The Four Steps 1.Reading through your piece 2.Editing the big picture 3.Editing the details 4.Using formatting

21. I have been correcting the proofs of my poems. In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence…. In the afternoon I put it back again. Oscar Wilde Know When to Stop

22. Thank You aliventures.comaliventures.com – writing, blogging, publishing aliventures.com/blogworld-editing Questions?