Many writers either don’t edit at all or do, but do it poorly so it doesn’t make any difference from your original copy. However, this short and simple article will show you how to edit your stories and articles very quickly, but efficiently.

1. Rather your supplies: You will also need to acquire three markers or pens of red, orange, and yellow colors and a copy of whatever you want to edit. Make sure to make a back-up copy of your work before you do this process.

2. Make a 1 to 2 description of what your writing is about, and do not include any descriptions or scenes from your work. Simply write what the main topic your work is about, and leave it at that.

Story Ex: “A young girl goes swimming at gets attacked by shark.” – Don’t say, “Sabrina, a 14 year old girl who lives in California, goes swimming with her family on summer vacation and gets attacked by great white shark”because it isn’t necessary and it will make your story messy because you have to introduce the family members, give a little bio of Sabrina, blah, blah, blah. Worry about descriptions and characters later on.

Article Ex: “How to get rid of writer’s block.” – Don’t say, “How to get rid of writer’s block quickly, easily, and without worrying about how to keep up when you get “on a roll”. Again, it isn’t necessary, and look, it even goes off topic.

3. (For stories) –  First, take your work and, with your red marker, cross out anything that is not related at all to the description you wrote. Don’t cross out characters or scenery descriptions just yet, just cross out anything off-topic. Second, your orange marker, cross out characters and scenery descriptions, like the introduction to a character or the description of an office. Lastly, take your yellow marker and circle anything that needs a transition (movement) to a different place in your story.

Once your done, read over your story again and add or delete anything that doesn’t fit. Make sure to check for grammatical errors and typos. Then, send it out to the world to read!

4. (For Articles) — It’s basically the same process as editing stories, but with your orange marker highlight quotes, citations, and reference links and with your yellow marker, highlight anything in need of a transition and keywords that continuously pop up in your article. For example, I would highlight article, story, highlight, marker, edit(ing), description, and how-to, as these all are hot, juicy keywords to add to your tags list.

And that’s about it. If you have any questions or need help, please comment below.