Writing is one of the best things a person can do.

Writing can be anything from a simple family history to that novel that you have always wanted to write.

But, what about getting published. This is where one needs to look at their work. A couple of simple spelling mistakes in the first paragraph can cause your work to be rejected by the publisher. Unless you are very lucky, you won’t even be told why. You will just receive a standard rejection letter.

The fact is that publishers today just do not have the time to consider whether your work has merit. The first person to read your work is deciding whether you are professional in your work. This is judged, largely, on the impression of a couple of pages. Perhaps a single chapter.

This brings us to the most important part of writing which is Editing..

The first level of editing is what you do yourself. This usually starts with running your spell check. You might even use a grammar checker. After this you have to be able to stand back and look at your work with a critical eye. Yes I know, it’s perfect. It says everything you want it to say. Or does it? Let’s look at an example. This is from ”The Earthsea Trilogy” by Ursula Le Guin, the first chapter of book two, paragraph five.

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