Just two more steps to go.

Step Four – Editing

Once you have your feedback and have finished your revision, the next logical step is to edit your work. This involves going through your work, sentence by sentence, word by word so don’t do it until all of your revisions have been completed. You need to set aside a good amount of time to do this in, obviously depending on the size of your work.

So, start reading your work, one line at a time and ensure that every word is correct, every sentence flows and every phrase is correct. And while you are at it, make sure it is all as strong as it can be.  Some of the things to look for:

Is the same word showing up too many times in a sentence or a paragraph? Check for alternatives with a thesaurus.

Can you take words out to strengthen your sentences? Some words can usually be removed, like “really”, “quite”, “very” and so on.

Do you have any sentences that are tough to understand? Rewrite where necessary.

Are your sentences and paragraphs grammatically correct? Make sure your past, present and future tense are consistent, subject-verb agreements are correct and so on.

Do not put your trust in a spell checker – check every word yourself to make sure it is correct. It doesn’t matter how many times you have to proofread it – do it.

Check your punctuation. Are your commas in the right places? Apostrophes? Full stops? Check it all.

Some people find it much easier to edit their work if they print it out first and use a red pen to mark any errors. Obviously, this will depend on how big your work is; you might not want to print out a 100,000-word novel!

Step Five – Publishing

Congratulations, you have made it to the final step – publishing your work. Now, what this means will depend on what type of work it is. If it’s a blog, it needs to be uploaded, formatted and then posted. A student writing a paper needs a final copy in the right format and, often, this will involve adding a bibliography, making sure that citations are rights and adding in the extras like a student reference number.

A journalist must submit their ‘copy’ to their editor in the right format. If it’s fiction and it's going to a magazine, you must follow the guidelines for that magazine. If it’s a novel, it either needs to go to an agent or you must self-publish and each method for self-publishing has their own guidelines on format, etc.

Unless it is a novel, there is every chance that your work may not be published. Don’t sweat it; many of the top authors wrote multiple stories before they got published. You should never see unpublished work as a waste; it’s all experience and it all helps you to grow.

These five steps are just a  framework for ensuring that your writing goes as smoothly as possible. Feel free to tweak but do stay as close to the framework as you can. The more you write, the easier it will be.