Why Perfect Grammar is Killing Your Writing Career

This post got me some clients on LinkedIn. It also got me thinking more about self-editing:

Proofreading doesn’t have to be complicated.

These 7 editing tips will save you time.

1. Copy and paste your draft from one writing app to another.
2. Change the font size and line spacing to Courier, 1.5
3. Separate writing and editing.
4. Use a dedicated grammar checker before pressing publish.
5. Need to fix something later? Type "TK. You’ll spot it instantly when editing.
6. Read your text aloud.
7. Create a checklist of your most common editing and grammar mistakes.

My Self-Editing Process

Years ago, I printed out my work and read it aloud. I don’t spend nearly as much time self-editing these days.

I usually write several posts or a newsletter like this one in the morning. I let it sit for a few hours and read through it in the afternoon.

Before publishing or scheduling, I proofread my content once or twice if it’s more than 800 words, using the process I described earlier. Sometimes, I find mistakes in a published piece of content—no big deal. I hit edit and fix it.

I don’t care much what the grammar police on X think about misplaced commas, and apostrophes (look, there’s one!). Occasionally, a subscriber or commenter tells me about a typo, but I don’t lose sleep over a dangling modifier.

Sometimes, readers point out when I misspell words like “realise” or “centre”. Then, I explain I’m from Ireland, and we use a different form of English here (mind your Zs, Ss, and ers). It’s all good fun, though.

A few years ago, I hired an eagle-eyed US reader to edit my site, Become a Writer Today. Beth worked with me for three years, editing my work and the work of some writers I hired for American English.

Maybe you don’t care about hiring or localization. You can use several apps to proofread and edit your content.

Grammarly is my top choice as I can rewrite sentences at a click. But I don’t accept every suggestion. I sometimes use Hemingway Editor to improve the readability of content, too.

I built a custom Claude project a few months ago that helps me edit my work. I trained it on my writing style and common mistakes. You can easily do the same. I recorded this tutorial explaining how to train Claude on your writing.

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It’s a good idea to edit your work and fix glaring typos. And if you’re creating content for clients, take editing seriously. Either follow a style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style or their in-house guide.

But, if you’re writing online, don’t let ttypos (there’s another!) and mistakes delay pressing publish.

Crafting immaculate prose is fine for literary fiction but not for content creators. Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise. Unpublished content won’t do much for your brand or business.

When in doubt, press publish.

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