So let me be real honest here – I used to hate editing my own crap. Like physically hated it. Saw that blinking cursor taunting me? Wanted to puke. Thought crossing out sentences meant I sucked. Total nonsense, right? But that was me three months back. Just slapping words down and hitting publish like a crazy person. Spoiler: that blew up in my face.
The Disaster Moment
Posted this 1,500 word “masterpiece” about sourdough starters at 2AM. Woke up to three emails:
- “Hey genius, you used ‘knead’ instead of ‘need’ eleven times”
- “Paragraph 7 literally repeats paragraph 3?”
- “Did you proofread this at ALL? It’s unreadable”
Deleted that mess so fast my keyboard sparked. Felt like an idiot.
How I Started (No Magic)
Next day I forced myself to actually look at my draft before posting. Made a deal: wait one hour after writing. Did a coffee break. Came back. Immediately found five typos. Mind blown. Then tried this:
- Grabbed red pen and printed draft (felt ancient but worked)
- Read out loud like I was podcasting
- Stuck sticky notes where sentences choked me
Took 90 minutes just to fix one article. Felt brutal. Next piece? Same drill. Still took forever.
The Breakthrough That Stuck
Stole this trick from novelists: the ugly pass. Now my process:
- Vomit draft out. Just brain to keyboard. Zero editing.
- Walk away. Minimum two hours. Do laundry, scream at plants.
- Return as “the editor” – pretend it’s someone else’s work
Bought cheap timer. Set it for 25-minute edit bursts. When it dings? I stop. Forces me to only fix what matters most.
What Actually Changed
After two weeks of doing this torture:
- Comments went from “you okay?” to “this helped!”
- Started catching dumb mistakes myself (duplicate words? Gone)
- Articles sounded more human – less robotic garbage
- Saved time – less frantic fixing later
Biggest win? Realizing editing isn’t fixing failure. It’s making the ideas actually land. My writing became sharper because I killed filler words like “very” and “actually”. Who knew?
Look, I still hate editing some days. But watching readers finally get what I’m saying? That’s the juice. Now I torture every draft before it sees sunlight. Because yeah – good writing is really rewriting. And not sounding like a drunk squirrel helps too. Just… give your words a second look. Trust me. It’ll make you 78% less crap immediately.
