The Review Writing Cycle — Continuous Development
My work is never completed. I go back and re-read certain things I have published and wonder what the hell was I doing or thinking while writing this. At times, I find the simplest spelling mistakes and can’t believe it.
As the editor of my writing, I sometimes think faster than I write and end up leaving out words or not finishing out sentences. Thankfully, I do not make a ton of mistakes all the time, but my writing is definitely not perfect.
I made the decision to not always follow every tedious rule of the English language because I just don’t care to. My goal with the work I publish is to get my point across with the fewest amount of errors and no spelling mistakes. Spelling mistakes still happen, but I try to review my work consistently — even dated work — to keep them minimum to zero. I make it a point to come back to everything — from my first post to my most recent post — and review it.
Reading through my articles and books out loud is a must for me. I then follow it up with a quiet read through. Sometimes I ask someone else to read my article if they are available, and they will usually point out errors if there are any.
I think the most important factor to being a successful editor of your own work is to:
1. Constantly improve your grammar and language skills via reading, writing, educational podcasts, classes, etc.
2. Constantly review your work by reading it out loud and reading it quietly to yourself.
3. Invite others to review your work, and ask them to point out any errors and also give you their point of view on your creations.
My work is never completed. My work is constantly in the queue to be reviewed again, again, and again.
The Review Writing Cycle is a continuous development process:
Plan your piece
Write your piece
Review your piece
Improve your piece
For each piece of writing you create, repeat steps 3 and 4.