by Jenna Kalinsky & Pascale Potvin
For any piece of writing to be successful (as in engage its reader and/or get published), it must be an immersive experience.
There may be no more original ideas in the world, but there are unlimited original ways to communicate them. That means your paragraphs, sentences, and words need to sound like you, only better: engaging and musical like a human voice as well as clear, correct, and clean.
When a piece of writing is a pleasure to read, your reader will follow it (and you!) anywhere. If it’s gawky, has errors, or feels stilted and jolts them out of the on-page world, it becomes a DNF: a sad case of “did not finish.”
Your reputation is on the line with everything you write, so to ensure your ideas are presented as clearly, cleanly, and engagingly, use these best 5 ways to perfect your writing.
When it comes to editing, DIY will never give the desired result. After all the work you’ve put into the drafting, revising, and tinkering, your brain is now too numb to catch the errancies and glitches in your work (a neurological phenomenon called “Semantic Saturation.”)
That weirdly placed comma on page 3; the double “the the” on page 6; the character being pregnant then suddenly not; an abrupt shift in tone from schoolmarm to chummy; or the two sentences beside each other both beginning with “The theory is” may all pass you by.
That’s why an outside editing support is always your greatest ally.
In a pinch, there are apps that will target and fix specific elements of your text, and ChatGPT or other AI may flag issues as well.
But the best editing and proofreading that is all the things: holistic, accurate, and human-centric—a touch that will care for both your work as an artful reading experience and ensure its technical elements are tight, is a professional editor and proofreader.
We all do it: rely on a pet word or phrase then sprinkle it into our work. Or we use one, and our brain, liking how it sounds or feels, latches on, and we unconsciously, and sometimes abundantly, plagiarize our own selves.
Writing app WriteWords has both a nifty Word Frequency Counter and a Phrase Frequency Counter. These are great for sourcing overused word crutches.
What’s nice about this app is it doesn’t simply flag the words/phrases, but it also gives you suggestions for alternatives that help the flow of ideas.
Similar to WriteWords, the Cliché Finder will detect common expressions in your writing: phrases that are overwrought, overused, or simply over.
It’s easy to use clichés—for many of us they’re emotional support words that have been passed down through our families and communities. Most of the time we use clichés without thinking twice (see?)
A cliché sprinkled in here and there is fine, but too many may undermine the strength of your unique voice.
*Naturally, dialogue is exempt.
Fresh language and new ways of illustrating ideas will always set you apart from your less innovative peers. This app will show you where you can take charge and try, try again.
Grammarly is great for catching most errors, awkward sentences, and missed words. A nice bonus is it teaches you in little thought bubbles what you did wrong so you can learn from your mistakes.
If you regularly misspell certain words, are subject to the particular (and incorrect) verbal tics of our time (ones that would otherwise illustrate to your reader you’re not aware of what is accurate, such as the mixed construction “the reason is because” used by basically every human being on the planet except the nerdy handful of us who know it’s a mixed construction), or wouldn’t know a comma splice if you tripped and hit your head on it, this app is fabulous.
AI can be helpful for flagging the most obvious errors for you. It can:
Used as a “hands-off” editor, an AI tool can catch the issues that take your draft from messy to presentable in minutes.
The problem with relying solely on writing apps or AI is they can’t read and interpret your work the way a real human reader would. Their strength is in predicting language patterns. Their weakness is they can’t detect context, nuance, or remain consistent with and further your particular “lyric register.”
That difference makes, well, an enormous difference.
AI will commonly introduce phrasing that’s not native to you and flatten your essential voice. It also may “fix” what’s not broken because it can’t detect context—especially with dialogue, stylized prose, or technical language.
And if your tone is anything besides earnest, such as using humor, irony, or sarcasm, it can’t pick up on that either.
Last but importantly, it takes what you’ve written as-is, not questioning gaps or holes in the narrative, character development flaws, or factual inaccuracies.
NOTE: It is strongly advised that if you choose to use any form of AI, that you use it only for flagging inconsistencies, typos, and usages, so you are the arbiter of whether those issues are incorrect and make the final adjustments yourself. Any AI-written text that makes its way into your manuscript will be flagged by editors, agents, and publishers, and be rejected, damaging to your reputation, and prevent future publication opportunities.
A professional editor doesn’t just correct. They interpret. They read your work as a living thing with intention, audience, and stakes.
Maintain your voice: Your voice is everything. It’s your chief currency, your USP (unique selling proposition), and your stamp on the world, whether you’re writing a novel, a memoir, an academic article, or a business book.
A good editor will not only nurture your voice but protect it and ensure it’s consistent, strong, and specific.
Address meaning and mechanics: Clarity and correctness are hallmarks of copyediting; however, so is understanding context and applying the right skills accordingly.
An editor can not only tell what you meant to say even when you didn’t say it (or could’ve said it better), they can fix it—saving your bacon and ensuring your work is smooth with no contextual gaps or holes to give your reader pause.
Like an actual reader, only better: An editor serves as your “ideal” reader, one with the ability to not only experience your ideas but fix them so they’re smooth and articulate.
Any redundancies, overwritten sections, or overwrought moments (such as too much description or an imbalance in showing versus exposition) where a reader might put your work down and go scrub the bathtub is something they can note and fix.
Make judgment calls on your behalf: This is where having a trusting relationship with your editor will pay off exponentially.
Catch “invisible” problems: AI won’t be able to see or fix certain issues such as a character’s hair color changing in Chapter 4; timeline glitches; gaps in logic; tonal shifts; or an accidental switch in point of view.
Also if you describe a character’s living room reno just a bit too much (what can you say; you love talking hardwood!), or you show characters scaling a mountain in a single line when that should have been a major plot point, your editor can put on the brakes and adjust or flag those areas to look at with you.
These executive calls can save your work so it goes on to greatness in a way AI or apps simply can’t.
Collaborate and defend your work: Great editors also understand when they should adjust and when to ask questions to put the creative control back in your court. They’ll write notes like:
Remember, your brain got semantically saturated a long time ago. Small gaps in the work are inevitable and happen to all writers. What’s brilliant about an editor is they will have your back. Their questions don’t just improve a sentence; they improve the entire work.
Their consistency, accountability, and spirit of collaboration is what will ensure your work reaches its proper heights.
Writers who work with editors note the enormous benefit from the relationship: being able to discuss their editor’s choices, see their work through new eyes, and understand how their writing can be itself only better all makes them better writers.
Think of apps as the lint roller, not tailoring the whole suit.
Working with an editor is always the best way to perfect your writing. Their ability to enter into your text as someone who understands your intentions, style, and tone, and who has the skills and sensitivity to enhance what you say so it is engaging, clear, and correct is unmatched in any machine.
That said, to streamline your financial investment, you could use a hybrid approach.
Ultimately, when you look at the 5 best ways to perfect your writing, there are two distinct tiers: writing apps and AI platforms, which can help your work look polished in a pinch, and a proper human editor who can ensure your work feels intentional, confident, and unmistakably yours.
Work solely with an editor or use the hybrid approach and enjoy knowing your work will become an immersive experience all your readers will enjoy.
Our editors take great pride in supporting our authors to be their best selves on the page.
Our comprehensive manuscript evaluations, developmental editing, line and copy editing, and proofreading have helped many authors achieve publication, greater reputations as writers, stronger book sales, and moving forward in their scholarship and industries.
Check out our authors’ publications and our editing services to see more!
Disclaimer: We are in no way affiliated with or sponsored by the mentioned services and cannot guarantee a 100% accurate portrayal of the software.
Got questions about editing, writing apps, or anything in-between? Leave a comment below!
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One Response
Sometimes I think that editing should be left completely to a professional. My advice to new authors is to churn out the raw draft and turn the manuscript over to your editor. What you say in this article is true. I think I’m doing myself and my editor (Jenna) a favour by polishing it before I surrender the draft to her. However, I do the first edit of my draft on my own. But as authors, we know our work so intimately that we miss much of what should be changed, including those words that go missing as we frantically pour out the story in the making. Clichés are my downfall as I use them in everyday conversation. They are boring and make a story ordinary. Readers want fresh approaches to the language of the story, uniqueness in the details of character, and plot. And, as for sentence structure, I use the same kind of sentences and forget to vary length and construction. I use Grammarly but it has flaws. There is nothing better than a second set of eyes.
When I first started writing, I thought that using an editor was cheating, that they make changes that diminish your own voice. I now realize that finding the right editor, helps bring out your voice with an intensity and clarity that is impossible to capture in a first draft.
Thanks, Pascal. Good advice. I enjoyed this article.