Dear Bloggers: Learn to Self-Edit and Make Your Writing Shine

Michelangelo, on finding a perfect block of marble, would believe that by chiseling away the surplus stone he was merely aiding the sculpture within to be revealed. And just like that, no matter how much you’re in love with your words, your first draft is only the rough material for you to get started carving out your art from.

From what I see on a regular basis, reviewing other people’s writing, too many bloggers are not only oblivious to the existence of easy proofreading apps, which should catch the most evident mistakes, they also, to my big surprise, never read what they write once again before hitting publish.

I get it. Writing is extremely difficult to make a living off, and in order to feed the online algorithms, bloggers are forced to churn out one piece after another. Most of us cannot afford to spend half a year on one piece, nor enjoy the luxury of a professional editor at our hand. And yet, if you genuinely enjoy writing — if you don’t, consider refocusing on some other type of media since this will only wear you out — allow it to shine at least a bit brighter through the practice of self-editing.

The digital age with its rapid Whatsapp chats, uneditable tweets, and millions of blog posts published each day made us more forgiving towards the mistakes of others. Which is…