Ideas for avoiding brain freeze while editing?

I always let my texts sleep at least 3 or 4 days before making final corrections. The only method I know to go faster is to ask someone else to read them and to underline possible problems, but it works only if this person does not want to rewrite your text.

Take a break! Use 10 or 15 minutes of break time to read an article or chapter by your favorite author! Reading something well-written will satisfy your inner editor and help to calm you down so that you can distinguish between actual prose and the Yoda-speak drabble you seem to have to endure. Stretch, and go back to reading the substantive. Good luck!

So you are an editor? Great. I think your brain out of idea now. You should come back and do it when you think you have any way. To me editing is kinda fun, but for long period and quantity it can be annoying. Still good luck to you. Hopefully you can do it this evening.

It is very timely that my brain is really empty today... Let me say, closer to the brain freeze you have mentioned earlier. This is my third comment supposed to be but the first 2 was not submitted because it might deviate from the discussion. So better not send it or else I will get cinstrasting comments too. :-) Thank you for posting this anyway. It helps me at least express what my heart wants to say.

I went for Battlestar Galactica when I ran out of Stargate (but I didn't stop at SG-1, I just went on and watched all the series; Battlestar didn't sound so bad after that Atlantis series). When I'm really pressed by deadline I watch a classic movie like Wrath of Khan - because I know it almost by heart so I can watch only 10-15 minutes at a time and then rush back to work. I agree with you that Star Wars doesn't help one bit. Sometimes I stop to read 2-3 pages of something that's really well written. Doesn't hurt to dream. Usually I try to re-read the material for the very last time in a different environment. I take the laptop to a park, or I take work home, or I take work to the office if I completed the project at home - things like that. Don't know why, but it helps. Anyway, it's been a while since you posted this discussion, so I hope you finished your work. Fingers crossed.

Freind I cant understand what are you saying. May be my English is weak so I cant understand. Explain in short.

Get some fresh air, and think about something lighter and more entertaining. Some times you have to just take a time out.

You need a break! Go ahead and watch Stargate! Or do some of your own writing for a bit and come back it. I do a lot of proofreading and editing in my job and I think you have to be feeling fresh in order to catch things, so I always try to do it smallish chunks, no more than 45 minutes at a time and then switch to another task for a bit (Stargate?). Good luck!

My humble three suggestions: 1. why not divide into parts that you will do over a planned period of time. In between, get some break and do something different. 2. get the gist of the (interesting) content and rephrase/rewrite in your own words and style. 3. Get some of the Lotters in here to share the burden with you. I am sure some would love the chance of what you are doing. If you are getting paid, you might consider sharing the "spoil" with them. Otherwise, consider it as charity while improving our command of the English language. Lol...hope it helps.

I think that you should not let the pressure get in to you. Just relax and focus on it. Detach yourself from anything that distracts your focus. If you are typing your article, do not let anything get in the way. Do not play music or turn the television on. Just be alone while doing it. If you get tired then walk away from your computer a bit and not think about your article and eventually ideas will be coming in.

Yikes, that doesn't sound like fun. Maybe just keep taking short breaks while editing and go do something else for about ten or fifteen minutes. This will give your brain time to recover and get back into the normal English mode and it'll be able to distinguish between the Yoda-speak. 22,000 words can get pretty boring after awhile, taking breaks might help