My fondest memories of high school include the breathtaking sight of red ink against crisp white paper.

Paired with these are memories of my most influential English teacher, Mrs. Kane. She was a sharp older woman, about five feet tall, and all wiry frame and steely gaze. She could make the broadest football players cower in her classroom.

"Quickly is not a verb. It is an adverb." Out would come that magnificent red pen, ready to right the wrongs of grammar like a dictator shutting down protesters. Semicolons were not allowed unless both sides could support themselves as complete sentences. Students who comma-sprinkled would have those buggers marked before they could say 'rough draft.' Actually, I'm not certain Mrs. Kane believed in rough drafts. Who needed a rough draft when all you had to do was memorize the rules of grammar and do it right the first time?

Mrs. Kane became my role model and I blossomed as an editor. My mentor taught me the rules of grammar, but it was more than that; each error I came across stuck out as plainly as if it were circled in red ink that only I could see. Because of this, I have a unique perspective on writing. I see it from the scientific standpoint as well as the artistic, and it has helped me to grow in my own writing (which is not nearly as effortless as my editing). I hope that, through reading this column, you too will be able to see where we editors are coming from and even see your own writing through fresh eyes.

And fresh eyes do get to be quite the problem, don't they? One of the biggest issues I come up against is losing faith in my current project. Once the initial exciting pages are typed and my character’s flesh has begun to set, doubts creep in. Some little voice inside me says, "What if this is awful? What if this is just like the ninety other first chapters you've abandoned over the years?" You can vehemently deny the voice, but even so, your inspiration tapers off and you wonder if it's worth continuing.

This is where the red ink comes into play.

The odds are that your writing is excellent. Inspiration draws from deep wells of creativity, ones that aren't tapped frequently otherwise, and what you have on paper or the computer screen is rough yet precious material. Think diamonds that have only just been dug out of the mud. To get past this roadblock, I'll share with you a method that has worked for me in the past. It allowed me to complete my first novel when I thought all hope was lost. (And geez, did I have trouble finding it.)

First, if your story isn't written on notebook paper, print out at least two copies. On top of one copy, write 'Good,' and on the top of other copy, write 'Bad.' Then get out a green pen and a red pen. I'm sure you can guess what to do: use the red pen on the 'bad' copy to mark things you don't like, and use the green pen on the 'good' copy to mark things you do like.

Be especially careful to comment on everything you like or don't like. It's too easy to write 'this character is awesome,' and miss out on useful positive feedback from yourself. What's awesome about him? Is it the eccentric way he dresses? His drier-than-the-Sahara sense of humor? Or maybe it's the relationship between him and his girlfriend that you think you nailed exactly right. Whatever it is, make sure you bring it up. This goes for the 'bad' copy too. Eliminate run-on sentences. Place commas only where desperately needed. Don't write 'need to rephrase this.' What is it that's wrong? Do you need to describe the scenery better? Was that introduction between Character A and Character B just a tad too awkward? The whole goal of the process is to separate the mud from the diamond, so to speak. You'll know when you're done marking up each paper¬–it's when you run out of white space.

Here comes the hard part. Starting with the 'bad' paper, return to your original manuscript and right what has gone wrong. You'll feel exhilarated once you fix that last weak sentence–trust me. When you're finished, move to the 'good' paper. Study what you liked and emphasize it, or at least keep it in your manuscript. This exercise gives you a bit of an editor's eye if you aren't one; if you are one, you'll find it a solid way to improve your writing now that you too can see the hidden red ink.