When self-editing a draft of your manuscript, consider doing it the old-fashioned way: printing it out on paper.

Reading text on paper will allow you to catch errors that you might not spot when editing on a computer screen. That’s because we read text on computer screens differently than we do that on paper. With computer screens, our eyes tend to glaze over the text – hence, why so many website writing gurus encourage using bullet points and short paragraphs with white space between them.

When printing out the manuscript, you may need to adjust its appearance. Reading double spaced manuscript in 12-point Times Roman with black ink typically is easier on the eyes and provides space to write comments and make corrections. Use white paper as well.

In addition, use a red pen, just like your middle school language arts teacher did. Red ink stands out best against the black print and will be easier to spot later.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.