How do you edit? Do you edit one way for a short story and a different for a novel? Different edits for different issues? Print or on-screen? What seems to work best?

I'm currently editing two novels and a short story. I tend to just read them and try to find what I think can be improved without a lot of system. My first edit I tend to more look for repeated phrases, weak verbs, too many adverbs, passives that can be changed. But I'll do other things as well such as adding scenes.

It's been a long path for me to figure out _how_ to edit. I still don't think I have it down, but just this weekend I discovered a new way I think is going to work for me.

After writing the first draft, go through and log each scene. Let the work age, then read through the manuscript. Decide what the story is, character narrative arcs, themes, and so forth. Go through each scene and figure out if it related to the narrative, whether its necessary, etc. If not, it goes in the cut pile. If yes, keep it. Go through and read the scene cards. Figure out if there are some missing scenes, write cards for those, stick them in. Then go through and start rewriting.

I haven't yet completed a cycle of this, so I'm not sure what I'll do next. I imagine I'll have to rinse and repeat a couple of times. Then I plan to print it out, and read it through. Makes sure it flows, look out for boring spots and redundancies. If I'm happy with it I'll take it to the next step of small-scale editing...

In which I'll read it again, if not aloud, at least "aloud" in my head. I'll circle clunky words and phrases, try to get rid of adverbs and adjectives (though I don't have much of a problem with those anyway). I have a bigger problem with purple prose, so I'll have to stamp that out pretty effectively. Look for inconsistencies as well.

Then I plan on sending it out for folks to read.

As for short stories, I usually write a first draft, let it age, reread it (sometimes I print it out, though my printer has been broken so I haven't been doing so for the last 6 months or so). For short stories I tend to do large-scale and small-scale editing simultaneously. Then I'll give it a once over, make sure it makes sense, and send it out for crits. I haven't devised a good way for dealing with crits when they do come back, though. I tend to read through them as they come in, make note of the stuff that I agree with, and pile a mental list on what I should change. I need to come up with an action list, though, or I'll just forget it and it will never get done.

I prefer to print stuff out, but try to limit it to either the first draft or the final draft, in order to save paper. I like to mark it up pretty liberally, with notes on what doesn't make sense, what drags, what moves along well, that sort of thing. More and more I've been doing everything electronically (again, to save paper and because my printer is busted!) but I find it's harder to get the holistic view, somehow. Also, with a large book manuscript, it's difficult to flip back and forth. On the other hand, the "find" function is great. Sometimes I have both the electronic and the paper versions out in front of me.

Then (STEP 4) I spend some time polishing it in an overview, followed by (STEP 5) removing every "ly" adverb that I can find. (That step is a recent word-processor-possible innovation.) My last completed MS also had a (STEP 6) sweating-down cutting for length, and a (STEP 7) careful consideration of every "have / has / had" verb---purely optional, and I don't plan to duplicate it in the near future.

Then I send out for critiques. Often this is on my 3rd or 4th version of a document, since I save as on each major pass through.

Once I get crits back, I print a version (usually using just 1.5 spacing, I hate all the paper passing through too, like annepin.) I then read each crit end to end and mark up the manuscript with what changes I plan to make based on the feedback. Typically this involves reading the MS more-or-less end to end 4-5 times, which is really helpful in figuring out some of the bigger stuff, flow, character motivations, dialogue, etc. While I'm marking up the MS with critiquer's feedback, I'm doing the parsing that needs to be done between all the diff crits. They don't all agree, and the suggestions from one may not be a good match for how I write or what my aims are in the story. So I do that judgment call during the marking-up editing pass.

Then I make the changes online.

Then usually I ask for one more round of crits.

And I cry if they come back with major edits. LOL (if so, I return to above step w/the printed manuscript, reading the crits off the computer and marking it up. If not, I go to next step.)

Final polish, then try to get it out the door. This is an area for improvement for me. Next year I plan to always have something out at a market, preferably always have all my polished work out at once. We'll see how well I'm able to coordinate that.

First, finish the thing and wait a bit.

- read it through for obvious errors, plotting problems and gaps.

- word processor editing - ie searching for common mispellings, made up words (ex alright), "was" and -ly.

- Cliche Cleaner. It's a free shareware program that picks up common phrases as well as common phrases you've created. So as an example, if a character runs his hand through his hair on a regular basis that phrase "he ran his hand through his hair" will get picked up and you can decide if you really want to use it.

- read through on a word by word basis. Chapter breaks usually happen here.

- second edit to tighten it - usually means reading it aloud too.

- Hatrack crits

- review comments on crits and revise

- "fly spec" - look at each mark on the page for accuracy. This includes making sure commas are mostly right as well as how the text sits on the page.

Any major revisions like adding a new scene take me back to the beginning of the process.

Ugh, I'm tired just from writing it all down.

I use macros to highlight things like those ly adverbs that WILL sneak their way in and I know some people who like AutoCrit which is an online site that has a similar function.

I'll try cliche cleaner. Sounds like a neat tool. Of course, the tools are only that. I use them to show me things that I want to look at then I make the decision.