
‘Dream with your heart. Write with your soul. Edit with your head.’
Jennifer Spredemann
It’s true, isn’t it. You might write with your soul, but you definitely edit with your head.
Editing is a very different skill to writing and so it doesn’t necessarily follow that all good writers make good editors. Especially when editing your own work. And especially when editing books, like the nonfiction books our members work on at the Booksmith Academy.
However, there are some simple tips you can follow to help you with self-editing that will allow you to make that shift from writer to editor, from soul work to head work.
1. Know when to start editing
Sometimes the drafting and redrafting process can feel endless, with no road signs to indicate you’ve reached your final destination and can put your pen down. But there’s no point editing your work until your final draft is complete. So before you start editing, make sure you’re done with major rewrites, tweaks and shuffles.
It can be difficult to determine when you’re done, especially with longer pieces that take weeks, months and years to write. But it’s essential that you stop making wide-ranging amends before you switch on your editing head.
Getting some distance from your writing is a great way to help with that transition from writer to editor. Take a big step back. A step that takes a few days or weeks to return from. Then read your words again and see if they feel less familiar. If they do, get ready to edit!
2. Be prepared for self-editing
Whether you’re naturally well organised or fly by the seat of your favourite joggers, you’ll want to find a way that suits you to feel prepared for editing. Some or all of the steps below will give you a way into self-editing, a way to keep track of what you’re checking for and ways to maintain that distance between your soul and head while you edit.

- Print it out – reading a hard copy is proven to change the way you see the written word. It allows you to see what’s really on the page, not what you expect to find there.
- Change font – if you’re used to typing in a particular font, another way to create space between you and your words is to save a copy of your work in a different font and read that.
- Keep copies of your work so that if you regret any of your editing decisions, you have previous versions to go back to.
- If you use Microsoft Word, turn on Track Changes before you start editing. This will keep a record of all the changes you make, allowing you to accept or reject them later and track your amends as you go.
3. Check the big stuff – page-level amends
If you’re a fan of a checklist, you’re in luck. Lists come in very handy while editing big works to help ensure you check and amend each aspect of each page. Consistency is one of the key aims in copy editing, so finding a way to keep track of what’s being checked at every stage is essential to success.
For longer works like books, these are the sort of page-level things you should check:
- Table of contents – headings match those in the text.
- Headings – on theme, formatted correctly and reflect the hierarchy.
- Features – each chapter or section contains the features you’d expect for your type of nonfiction (case studies, intros/conclusions, quotes, further reading, examples, hints, exercises, summary boxes etc).
- Page numbers, chapter numbers, cross-references all correct.
4. Check the little stuff – word-level amends
Editing also involves keeping spelling, grammar and punctuation consistent and correct, and checking for other word- and sentence-level hiccups like unwanted repetition, clichés, clunky phrasing and muddy description.

For the smaller details, you might find it helps (especially for larger pieces) to keep a checklist of common elements to look out for. Your list might look something like this:
- UK spelling
- Double quote marks
- Serial comma
- One to ten in words, 11+ in digits
- Capitalise job titles
- Sentence case for headings
- Capitalise all summary box headings
5. Know when to stop editing
When it comes to the smaller details, like those listed, it’s easy to see when you’re finished, as you’ll have been down the list and ticked them all off, making any resultant amends with the help of your friends, Find and Replace.
With the sentence-level and bigger stuff, it can be hard to know when you’re finished editing. A good sign that you can down tools is when a full read-through soothes your sharp, eagle-eyed editing head with the balm of well-punctuated, beautifully flowing, correctly spelt prose.
By the time you’ve been through the whole piece looking for overall page-level issues and the minutiae of polishing each phrase and full-point, the chances are the average reader will be more than satisfied. Done is better than perfect, after all.
For more nonfiction writing and wellbeing tips, check out our other blogs and sign up to our bi-monthly newsletter. We’ll keep you in the loop!