One of the biggest mistakes writers make is thinking that they can self-edit their own work. Whether you’re writing a novel, short story, blog post, scholarly article or advertising copy, editing and proofreading are crucial steps in the process. Even editors need editors.

This post? Totally proofread by someone that isn’t me.

EVEN THE BEST WRITERS BECOME WORD BLIND.

You’re too close to your own writing to make it perfect. You know your story inside and out, especially if you’ve been deep in the revision process for a while. Your eyes skip over missing words and misplaced commas when you read, and that’s completely normal. The first time I sent a manuscript off to an editor I was appalled by the number of errors he caught. After all, I’d read it through countless times during the revision process, and I’m no slouch. A fresh pair of eyes will find the errors you missed, and might even be able to help you improve the flow of your work.

9 out of 10 linguists agree¹, English sucks. It’s full of arbitrary rules and bizarre spelling. Even native speakers have trouble with it. You need someone in your corner who has the knowledge and experience to know when your participles are dangling and your commas are spliced. It’s also helpful to have someone that knows the style manual inside and out, so your prose is consistent.

¹ I totally made that statistic up, but will stand behind it.

Have you ever had to tell your word processor to learn a word? Have you ever shaken your fist in consternation because the grammar check is prompting you to change your sentence to past tense for some inexplicable reason? Yeah, me too. These tools are great, but following their recommendations blindly will lead you astray.

Know what you’re not doing while you’re self-editing? Writing. Send that revised draft off to your editor and get back to producing content!