Writing long stories, school papers, and manuscripts is hard work. It requires you to spend hours, days, and even weeks working on a piece of writing. When you spend large amounts of time working on projects it helps to take time off before working on editing your draft. Sometimes taking a break before editing is extremely helpful in jump starting your brain to be able to process errors in spelling, grammar, and the structure of the piece you are working on.
Editing in an important part of the writing process. It is through editing, writers are able to perfect their work and find mistakes made during construction of a draft. There are many who stop and edit as they write but this can be problematic. It slows down the writing process and also takes away focus from thinking about how to continue a piece. Often it is best to write an entire draft and then work on editing.
If you have ever tried to edit a piece of writing that has taken hours and hours of time you may know the difficulty of finding mistakes. When you've focused on your piece for a long period of time it is often hard to switch gears. It may be hard for your brain to process any errors you made while constructing your draft.
This is why it's important to take a break. Even taking a short break is helpful. By taking a moment away from your writing, you allow your mind a chance to clear so that it won't miss or ignore any mistakes you made while writing. Next time you work hard on a piece of writing take a break before you edit it and determine if this helps you in the editing process.
