The happiness of finding a new technique to improve my writing.

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Susan Bell’s new book, The Artful Edit, about how writers can do a better job of editing themselves.

It has a lot of good advice, but there was one technique – reassuringly simple to do – that I tried today with great success.

I printed out my draft in a different font.

Yes, it was as easy as that. When I printed out my draft for editing, I switched the text from Times New Roman, which feels like my own handwriting, to Georgia.

It sounds insignificant, but in fact, the changed look of the page made it easier to spot awkward spots.

When I’m done with this edit, I’m going to try another of Bell’s suggestions, and read the whole darned draft aloud.

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For folks interested in the general subject of self-improvement, the great site Pick the Brain has a helpful round-up of blogs worth checking out. Needless to say, I was very happy to see The Happiness Project on the list.

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Comments

[Eric Waltmire]

Rather than reading the draft out loud, have your computer do it. This is helpful because we tend to read our writings as we intended to write them rather than as we actually wrote them. “Ultra Hal Text-to-Speech Reader" is a free program that will read any electronic text. I wrote more about it here: http://www.waltmire.com/blog/archives/2007/02/13/how-to-proofread-perfectly/

[Gretchen Rubin]

Wow! What a great idea. You're absolutely right, when I read my own material, I tend to dress it up so it reads as well as possible, even though I should be reading it to look for flaws. I'm not a tech person, so am slightly intimidated by the thought of grappling with this program, but I'll give it a shot. I'm sure it would be very useful.

Even the incomparable J. K. Rowling, who I think is a genius, would probably have changed a few words here and there if she'd been able to hear Jim Dale's recordings of her books. She has some repeated words, accidental rhymes, and verbal tics (people constantly "leap to their feet") that are easier to identify with the ear than with the eye.

[Martha Garvey]

I love how part of our brain is a little kid, and responds to these simple, lovely tricks (change the font! change the color of your fountain pen ink!).

[John Wesley]

Thanks for letting your readers know about the list. Keep up the great work over here!

[AgentSully]

what a great idea for better editing! I'm going to try that too!