By Emily McDowell
Have I done enough? A common question many writers ask themselves every time they are moments from submission. However, is enough too much? When writers begin the editing process often, they find themselves over editing. This results in more mistakes than adding too little.
As a writer, you want to submit the best of your own writing thus, you make yourself find every reason there is something wrong with your piece. You look for small grammatical errors that may or may not exist and end up causing another issue. This is known as over-editing, and stems from the lack of confidence and faith in yourself. While this is an issue many people face, there are many ways to overcome this challenge and become confident in your work.
To begin, you can start by taking a step back. Many times, when we are writing we find ourselves not only writing in one sitting but also editing in the same period of time. As we begin the writing process, it is helpful to take a step back after we conclude the writing process so then we can look at our work with fresh eyes. This allows us to fully comprehend what it is we are editing and not become overwhelmed by not only the writing but also the edits we have to make which makes it easier to catch spelling and grammatical errors rather than creating issues that do not already exist.
Next, another step we can take is finding confidence in ourselves. When we do not have confidence in ourselves, we do not find confidence in our writing. Finding faith and confidence in your writing takes time and it is not an easy task. However, taking the feedback we receive on our academic assignments is the first place to begin. Using the detailed notes, we receive about our writing tells us where we have room for improvement and what we excelled at. It is this feedback that allows us to find confidence in our own writing. Another step is asking for feedback while it can be scary, or you may feel you do not need it, receiving suggestions from your professors and or peers will help elevate your writing to the next level. Using these suggestions is the next major step in learning when to hit send.
Finally, how does this apply to the submission process? While these are only a few examples, it is these steps that allow us to determine when it is appropriate to hit send. While there is always the constant fear you have not done enough for the piece you are working on, hitting the send button will get easier the more you learn how to leave the edits behind.
Today, I have discussed with you the idea of taking a step back, finding confidence in ourselves, and how this applies to the submission process. Together these steps tell us when to hit send so you can submit with confidence and ease.