Blogging Tip #21

Today's tip is much less controversial than it was a few years ago: should you edit blog posts that have already been published? It used to be akin to cheating. I always corrected though. I'm a writer and an editor, and when I see a typo or mistake in grammar after-the-fact, I change it. Why? Because the public judges you by your work - in this case, the written word. If you have the opportnity opportunity to correct a mistake, why not take it? You don't even have to be this obvious about it. I figure Blogger included an editing feature for us to use, otherwise they wouldn't have added the feature to begin with.

 Who makes up these rules anyway?

Headline Bloopers

Head over to The Blood Red Pencil where Marv Wilson has us all rolling in the aisles over real headline bloopers. While you're laughing, take a look at your own blog titles. Do some of them sound a little funny? They made so much sense when you wrote that blog post, but maybe they're a little off when you see them with a fresh look.

It never hurts to go back and look at your old writing. While you're there, edit the bloopers out of the post itself. We all have typos, grammatical goofs, and punctuation errors that we overlook. As a writer, you need to correct your mistakes, even after-the-fact. It's never too late to put your best foot forward.

Be sure to bookmark and follow The Blood Red Pencil where you'll get ongoing advice not only about revising and editing your book manuscript, but other writing and publishing tips as well.

Correcting Your Errors

The Blood Red Pencil recently had a good entry about editing blog posts. There's a traditional school of thought that, once the blog publishes, it lives as is - correct or riddled with errors. I completely disagree, and the reasons mentioned here are valid. Be sure to read the dozen or so comments for how other writers feel about the subject.

Now go read through your own blog posts for the past week, correct any grammatical errors, and while you're at it, check the flow of your posts from day-to-day. Bottoms up, of course.