I’d like to address one of the necessities of writing: learning from your mistakes. Like all activities, practice makes perfect (with writing, you can get close). We become better at the activity by learning from our mistakes. With practice, we make the mistakes less often, making the activity more fun and productive.

Some of my students are in the process of learning English while pursuing their business degree at the university. So I see a lot of grammatical and word choice errors. In commenting on their papers, I correct their grammar in the hopes that they will ask me why something is wrong or look it up in a grammar handbook (perhaps I’m being optimistic).

Slowly, with more practice and feedback, they get better. They don’t make the mistakes they made at the beginning of the semester. They learn from their mistakes.

This learning process involves two actions: getting feedback and being willing to learn.

a) You must receive feedback about your writing from a good reader. The reader will point out the mistakes faster than if you tried to figure them out on your own, which you can always do. A god grammar handbook is helpful, regardless of who reads your writing.

b) You must be willing to learn from your mistakes. That means taking the time to figure out your error and the reason you made it (your thinking process), learning the right way to write the sentence, and applying that learning when the situation comes up again.

Part of this process involves reading other authors and noting how they handled a situation. How did they express the idea? How would you have done it? Note the differences. Do you like your way or the other author’s way better? Emulate authors you like and ignore the others, at least in their style of writing.

One way to become a better writer is to read, a lot, in the genre you are writing in. If you are writing about auto mechanics, you should read auto mechanic manuals. If you are writing business reports, you should read many business reports. If you are writing screenplays, you should read many produced screenplays.

This reading will allow your unconscious mind to acquire the rhythm of the language and you’ll become a better writer. You’ll soon be able to identify different styles of writers, different options to express the same idea

In your own writing, you’ll soon spot potential problem areas and take a moment to figure out the right way to express the idea, not your usual (wrong) way.

Thus the drafting process actually becomes slower since you have more decisions to make. The upside of this is that your draft will be of higher quality and the revision process will be easier and faster.

Even with all my years of writing, I still have a few favorites that still sneak into my drafts. During revision and editing, I look for each mistake during one read; that is, I read the writing looking for that mistake, and only that mistake. Then I take the next issue on my list and read the manuscript for that mistake. This way, I don’t get lost in what I’m trying to read for, and fail to see when the mistake appears on the page. Naturally, I read the manuscript many times before feeling it is ready for the world.

One suggestion I have is to find a writing buddy, one who can point out errors in your writing, or at least those sentences that are suspect. This buddy should be a pretty good reader in your genre. Once an error is detected, it is your job (so you can learn) to figure out if the sentence is actually wrong and how to fix it.

You might want to create a list of favorite mistakes to edit for. You’ll find that this list is a constant reminder for your learning process. And you might find that you see the correct (hopefully) ways to express the ideas in the writings of others.

In any case, you’ll learn the correct way to write, and the writing will become easier.

What grammatical errors are on your favorites list? Which ones have you conquered and no longer make? Leave a comment for others to learn (and cheer) about.

Do you want to use this blog in your ezine or on your blog? You have my permission, as long as you send notice of publication with a link to katie@ploegersservices.com, and include the following paragraph with links intact in your post:
Katherine Ploeger, MA, MFA, is a writer, editor, teacher, and consultant. She publishes practical, process-oriented information for nonfiction writers and screenwriters on her blog, Katie’s Writing Notes (katieploeger.wordpress.com). Also check out her website at www.ploegersservices.com for books about writing.