To get your manuscript publication-ready, you’ll need to edit it…a lot. Editing your manuscript is often more work than writing it in the first place, but that work pays off. An edited manuscript is tight, polished, and ready for readers.

Editing your manuscript isn’t as simple as scanning each page for misspelled words. There are a number of different types of edits you’ll need to do get things up to par. We’ve got some great editing tips for you to try using a tool specifically meant for editing.

How an editing tool can help you get your manuscript in tip-top shape

Here’s how you can use an editing tool to support three of your editing types.

1. Use an editing tool for your copy-edit

A copy-edit pays detailed attention to your use of language throughout your manuscript. The goal of a copy-edit is to address technical flaws within your manuscript, such as mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax. You’ll also look for consistencies in spelling, hyphenation, jargon, and formatting.

Unlike a line edit, which addresses the way you use language to communicate your story to the reader, the copy-edit ensures that your use of language is technically accurate and consistent.

Using a grammar checker and editing tool like ProWritingAid is a great way to address many of the errors that you’re looking for in a copy-edit. ProWritingAid analyzes your writing and highlights potential improvements. For an in-depth explainer of ProwritingAid’s free and premium versions, check out our full ProwritingAid review.

Reports like the Grammar Report use the latest artificial intelligence to catch thousands of embarrassing text errors. The Grammar Report can show you when you’ve missed a comma, but it also goes further than that, highlighting frequently confused words (such as “adverse” and “averse”) so you can eliminate silly mistakes before you reach your line edit.

Likewise, the Consistency Check highlights cases of inconsistency in spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and punctuation. That way, you can make sure your work is clean and consistent.

Using an editing tool won’t solve all the copy-editing problems in your manuscript: you’ll still need to work with a human editor to address issues like formatting and font. But by using an editing tool, you can address many copy-editing mistakes yourself, meaning that you’re using your editor’s time (and your money) in the most effective way possible.

2. Use an editing tool for your deep edits

Your manuscript will go through many rounds of editing before it’s done. Near the end of your editing process, you may engage in something called deep edits: when you focus only on one issue and read your manuscript only for that.

Here are some examples of deep editing topics:

• Adverbs
• Showing versus telling
• Dialogue tags

If you were doing a deep edit for adverbs, for instance, you would read through your manuscript and identify every instance of adverb usage.

Adverbs aren’t technically wrong, but they can often be replaced with more active writing and are a sign that you might be doing more showing than telling. By eliminating adverbs in favor of stronger verbs, you’ll make your writing better.

Rather than going through your manuscript and underlining all of your adverbs with a red pen, an editing tool can highlight all of your adverbs in one go. The ProWritingAid Writing Style report highlights all of the adverbs in your work and offers suggestions for how to replace them so your writing is stronger. 

You can use an editing tool for other deep edits as well, such as identifying sticky sentences, improving readability, and highlighting repeats and echoes.

The key with deep edits (and all edits) is to remember that you have full control over what feedback you choose to implement and what feedback you choose to ignore. An editing tool can help you find the potential problems, but you’ll have to decide if and how to fix them.

3. Use an editing tool for your final proof

Proofreading is the final part of your editing process. During a proofread, you’ll look for awkward word or page breaks and do a final run of copy-editing. 

You can use an editing tool for this final copy-edit, as well: running ProWritingAid’s Grammar Report and Consistency Check can make sure that you haven’t misplaced a comma or forgotten to capitalize a character’s name during your line and deep edits.

An editing tool can save you time and money at the proofreading stage: if you’re tight on funds, you can use an editing tool to run your final checks, while you yourself search the manuscript for formatting errors. At this stage, you’ve caught the vast majority of mistakes and there aren’t as many errors to contend with.

Use an editing tool at every stage of the editing process

Working through the edits of your manuscript is both a challenge and a joy. By the end of your editing process, you’ll have a book that’s publish-ready…even if it takes you several rounds of edits to get there!

Working with an editing tool like ProWritingAid can save you time, money, and hassle as you hone your manuscript. By using an editing tool, you can identify both large and small mistakes and decide how to fix them to improve your work.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

Photo via Flamingo Images / Shutterstock 

I probably sent out at least 100 applications before I finally landed a solid gig.

Want to know how I landed it? Using an editing tool.

This particular job posting asked for a standard cover letter and writing sample. However, it also had a unique request: I needed to identify the grammatical error within the post. 

I read the post through a few times and couldn’t easily identify the error. So, I did the logical thing: I copied the whole post, pasted it in an online editing tool (ProWritingAid, to be precise), and ran a report.

Bam. There was the mistake.

I popped it into my cover letter and got the job. Just like that, I was officially a freelance writer…with a real client!

If you want to be a freelance writer or editor, you need to be using an editing tool.

Stop resisting using an editing tool

I resisted using an editing tool for a long time.

For some reason, I thought that using an editing tool made me a less legitimate writer. If I wanted to call myself a writer, I needed to be able to catch grammatical errors or inconsistencies myself.

Still other writers I know resist editing tools because they worry that using technology will remove the style from their craft. They want their work to remain unique and worry that using technological suggestions will affect the personality in their work.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

All writers make errors and can benefit from an extra set of eyes. And editing tools don’t take the personality out of your work – they simply give you an informed set of options that you can engage with and decide if they fit your work.

Editing tools are the best way for freelance writers to improve their craft. Here are three reasons why.

1. An editing tool can help you produce work more efficiently

One of the best parts about working with editing tools is that they can help you produce higher quality work more efficiently.

For many writers (myself included), the writing is the fun part. Editing? Not so much.

But editing is a necessary part of every good writer’s process – even if you work with a fantastic human editor. 

Editing tools are perfect for those first-round edits. A tool like ProWritingAid can help you catch missed commas, repeated words, spelling errors, and more — all with the touch of a button. By using an editing tool, I save myself hours of carefully reading my work to catch mistakes I missed. That means that my drafts are higher quality when I eventually submit them to my editing teams.

2. An editing tool can help you improve as a writer

Even the best writers can develop bad habits.

For instance, I get very fixated on specific words. I’ll use them over and over in my work. My latest phrase of choice is “simply put.” I can’t stop dropping it into the posts I write!

One of my favorite parts of using an editing tool is catching those mistakes. When I proofread on my own writing, I often don’t catch repeats or any of my other usual gaffes…because they sound right to me! My impartial editing tool is handy at highlighting those habits and helping me fix them.

Plus, getting reports about what I’m doing wrong helps me improve. I wouldn’t have even known I was overusing “simply put” if ProWritingAid hadn’t told me. Now, every time I type those words, an alarm bell sounds in my head and I stop to think about how I can write something fresh.

3. An editing tool can help you transition between different types of writing

As a freelance writer, you’ll likely find yourself transitioning between different niches and different types of writing. Sometimes, I work on grants and formal types of work. Other times, I’m writing blog posts. Occasionally, I even write content for children!

Editing tools can help you transition from one audience to another. 

ProWritingAid offers a readability report, which helps me adjust the difficulty of my language up or down depending on who I’m writing for. Similarly, I can change up my writing style, so that the reports compare my work to other pieces in my niche. These reports help me understand my writing and recalibrate as I shift from assignment to assignment.

You can’t afford to not use an editing tool

Once I started working with an editing tool, my freelance writing career took off.

Now, I’m able to quickly and easily write strong content – and more of it. Working with the right tool allows me to catch silly mistakes and make changes that improve the substance of my work. Rather than letting my weaknesses distract from my writing, I’m able to overcome them.

Better still, I’m learning, and becoming a better writer, every day.

This post, written by a member of the ProWritingAid team, contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

Photo via Lamai Prasitsuwan/ Shutterstock