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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26359
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Different methods have been suggested for _copy_editing, that is, for finding spelling and grammar mistakes (such as printing text instead of copyediting at a screen, using a different font, reading backwards from the end of the text, and so on), but to my knowledge only one method helps in distancing yourself from the _content_ of your writing and seeing it in a detached manner and that is

### time

(as Neil Fein has already noted), but in combination with

### distraction

Brandon Sanderson explains this method and his procedure in one of the videos from his writing class ([watch from 6:30 to 9:14](https://youtu.be/nKHLuGyjRi8?t=390) ), and it is what all the professional writers do that I know of:

- finish a novel
- put it away
- **write the next novel**
- put the next novel away
- read and edit the first novel

The process becomes a bit more complex when you have a previous novel in the works and the one before that returns from the editor with recommendations (or demands) for edits and you also need to outline the project after the next one and so on, but the basic prodedure remains the same:

# let your writing rest while you work on other projects

like this:

- finish a novel
- put it away send it to your alpha readers
- [write, outline, edit, research etc. your _other_ projects]
- put the other projects away
- read and edit the first novel and work in the feedback from your alpha readers
- submit the novel

The important part is that you **work on something else**. It is the distraction that will distance yourself from your work, not the time alone. If you just wait for six months, then your project will have been churning on in your mind and you are still emotionally involved in it. There may be some distance in that you have forgotten some details, but it is still and always at the top of your mind, just like going home doesn't destress you from problems at your job, but watching tv will: tv fills your mind with something, so that while you watch you cannot think of what worries you about your job. Similarly, if you have to "get into" another project with your imagination and emotion, then there is no place in your mind for another one and when you return to the first one you will clearly see all its shortcomings.

And: If you make your project only one, by implication: not so important, project in a life-long series of projects, then you gain the right professional perspective and "killing your darlings" will no longer be so difficult. Because, if you work on one project at a time, that project will feel like it defines you, that _you are your writing_, and criticism of your work will feel like criticism of you. But if you have to switch projects like any other worker moves from one comission to another, then you are no longer what you write but a writer and both progress and criticism become much easier.

Original score: 6