Avoid checking spelling or changing around sentences at the start of the editing process. These aspects of your writing should be reviewed only after you’ve taken care of the big stuff. Big stuff may be plot, characterisation, order, and so on.

Why care about a misspelled word when you may end up deleting the paragraph altogether or completely rephrasing it?

Look out for words that sound the same but are spelled differently

Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Common ones include principal/principle, right/write, currant/current, draft/draught, and so on.

When we’re writing, it’s easy for our fingers to spit out one when we mean the other.

Check for missing quote marks

In writing out quotations, it’s important to get the text exactly right. But sometimes writers forget to finish the quote with the second quote mark. Also check to see if the period is inside or outside the last quote mark. In school we’re often taught to place the period outside the last quote mark, but most style guides recommend placing it inside the last quote mark – even if it wasn’t in the original quotation.

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