Nuts and Bolts of Self-Editing for Writers

Producing crisp, error-free prose presents a polished image and helps you stand out in a crowd of writers. If you have a great editor, they’ll appreciate a clean draft. And if you’re working without a net, editing yourself is crucial. We’ll talk tips and tricks, whether you’re writing for a publication, submitting a manuscript, or re-reading your own words before you hit post. 

The goal of this workshop is to give you tools to become a better editor for your own work. We’ll see how to spot glitches, what to question, and where to find answers. We’ll cover typos, grammar, and usage. We’ll talk common pitfalls and frequent flubs. Toward the end of the workshop, we’ll put into practice a bit of what we’ve learned: I’ll provide a few brief writing samples and we’ll tackle the editing, addressing questions as they arise.

Daniel Shumski is a Montreal-based writer and editor. He has worked as a copy editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and as a digital news editor at the Chicago Tribune. His food and travel writing has brought readers ramen in Tokyo, pizza in Chicago, and ice cream in Buenos Aires. As a cookbook author, he has sold more than 400,000 copies in Canada and the United States. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University.

www.danielshumski.com