As a writer myself, I know as well as anyone out there who has ever attempted to write anything -- from a poem, an article or essay, to song lyrics and short stories to a full blown novel, biography or memoir -- that editing and revising is a process that is one of the most crucial. However, the process can get very tedious as a person goes over written work with a meticulous eye.

That being said, editing and revising can be very pricey if a writer opts for traditional publication, and even some of the self publishing companies charge a huge price to review, edit and revise any kind of work before they will help a writer get published.

If you, the writer, choose to publish via a self publishing company and cannot afford to pay the editing cost, rethinking the entire process may not be a bad idea. There are self-publishing companies that will allow you to do this for yourself and presto - no huge fee for the process you must now do all by yourself.

Herein lies the problem; a lot of writers can read and find flaws in other writers' work but turning that same perfectionist eye on one’s own work? That’s another story altogether. There are plenty of methods out there, I’m sure, but it never hurts to learn another. The one outlined below is a fresh eye approach. It may be hard to believe that a writer can look at their own work with ‘fresh eyes’ but I assure you it can be done.

1. Do not under any circumstances publish the work immediately, just because you can. If a writer is in that big a hurry to get their work published without double checking it first, then they are writing for the wrong reasons.

2. The author should avoid asking anyone too close to check their work. That is begging for a sugar-coated answer that will never do any author any good.

3. Walk away.That’s right. Walking away from a particular work will help an author tremendously. Leaving any work alone for a day or two will make the brain forget some of the finer details.

4. Do Something Else. Read or write anything else, or simply take a two-day break. This will help the process of minor forgetfulness, which is what the author is aiming for.

5. Go back and start at the beginning. Read everything written, begin with the cover page and end with the final notes. Yes, if an author reads their work over again after leaving it alone for a couple days, it will seem like they are reading someone else’s work. This allows the author to find any missed ideas they wanted to deliver, fine tune the work with better concepts in some places or even some possible mistaken grammar or spelling.

An author does not necessarily need another company to review, edit and revise their work. There is nothing wrong with paying a company that specializes in this particular field to do the job. However, if the writer is living on limited funding, using a method like the ‘fresh eyes’ method may be a wonderful and free alternative.