My Best Editing Tip by Sydney Salter

I absolutely loved hearing stories when I was a child. I can still remember snuggling with one of my parents and reading The Little House books aloud. I loved reading stories to my own kids. I still read things to my cat. 

But I've always hesitated to read my own work to myself. 

It's tedious.

It takes so long. 

Errgh.

For many years I avoided this final editing phase. But then I thought that my cat might enjoy one of my Works-In-Progress, so I read it out loud. 

Wow! 

I found all kinds of odd sentences, unplanned repetition, typos; truly weird punctuation. I enjoyed rewriting a few things right there on the page and
testing them out until I received my cat's approval. 

So my best editing advice: Don't skip the print it out and read it out loud part. It really does help you add that last bit of shine to your stories.