This is how I edit:

I'm always gonna be focused on strong POV and condensing language. That's what I like to read, and that's what I try to write. I'm also rarely hooked by characterization. Odd Thomas and Lonesome Dove might be the only two novels that have hooked me through characterization.

The one thing that I don't think is just my opinion is repeating words for emphasis. That may work in music or poetry, but in fiction repetition is distracting. From talking to David Robbins, (The War of the Rats, The Assassins Gallery, about a dozen others), editors want to see your talent. Repetition usually just shows them that you can't think of ways to vary your language. Although *sigh* I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

So yeah. That's me, that's how I'll edit.

What does everyone else look for/twitch when they see it done wrong?

Ben

I think this has sorta been posted before, but I couldn't find it .

Then I print the novel and read it out loud. This is normally my last edit. I am in particularly looking for repetitive sentence structure, awkward phrasing and poor dialogue, but anything that doesn't seem "right" will get changed at that point. Then get on the computer, type in the changes, run one more spell check hoping I haven't put in any typos in my changes and I'm done.

I originally meant to ask how we edit each other's work, specifically the first thirteen, but I think I like the angle Jeanne took better.

How do you edit your own work? What methods do you use? What mistakes do you inevitably make that you go back and cut?

By the way I also look for some other totally useless words like finally and now. They are generally just padding. Amazing how getting rid of these tightens up your sentences. And I am continually amazed at how often I DO use was instead of stronger verbs without realizing it. That is the one that gets me.

If I can't find anything nice to say I prefer not to critique, because I believe crits are more effective when one says something encouraging as well as the critical stuff. (Else there's a risk of the writer feeling, 'What, can't I get anything right?')

After saying something nice I'll consider critiqueing science, characters and motivation first; then hook, then writing.

I try to consider these areas in that order, and focus the critique on the first of them that has, for me, a major problem; I think there's little point in discussing the latter issues if the earlier ones are seriously flawed. (For example, no amount of rewrites will fix a story with poor science or characters whose motivation makes no sense. And without a hook, nobody will read the rewritten stuff.)

All that said, if the first 13 is written in English that's too hard to read due to bad grammar or poor spelling, I don't critique it because there are books on basic writing that are far more useful than anything I could write -- and I don't have the patience to read something that's hard to make sense of. (I'll forgive the odd spelling mitsake, an "its" when it's an "it's" that's needed, or a grammatical oversight; but not a first 13 where the writer clearly hasn't bothered to even try to get it right.)

When I critique a full story I make notes on the fly using Word's comment feature so that the author can see my first impressions unedited. (People have done that for me and it's enormously helpful to see how the reader reacts.) That'll be a whole mix of stuff including the science, characters and motivation, grammar and spelling, taste, flow, just as it occurs to me. Then I try to summarise with an extra para or two, prioritized as before: science and believability, character and motivation, hook, plot, resolution (in other words, all the structural stuff first) and then the writing itself.

I do my own stuff in pretty much the same way: science, structure, motivation, plot and logic first; expressing myself in decent English second. If I realize a story has a specific problem -- POV, an excess of verbosity of expression, or repeated use of certain words -- I do a focused edit with that one issue in mind so that I can get it consistently right and fixed.

One thing I don't do is critique according to a set of rules from a book on writing, or my personal tastes in writing style. I try to keep an open mind and see where the author is taking the story, and consider if it works for me. If it does, great -- and if there's a POV violation or an adverb, I don't care because for me it worked. If the story doesn't work, or if a phrase falters, and if I can see a violation of the 'rules' that helps explain what's wrong, then I'll invoke the rule to the best of my ability. But I try not to point out rule violations just because they happen to be there: few if any of the rules are cast in stone and I think unless one can say why the rule violation matters, it's often better just to let it go.

My last finished thing, I went through and rewrote everything that involved "has / had / have." A conscious situation, where it seemed that the first-person narrator wouldn't be capable of "having." Probably peculiar, but the sentences seemed to be better phrased after doing it.

*****

I’m not very disciplined in the order in which I do so.

I read aloud for the rhythm of the text. I look for the hidden scenebreaks, are they working okay? Do they have a good transition from one side to the other? I look at the underlying structures of the writing. Does every scene, sequel and filler have a point? Either a plot point or reveal something interesting and crucial about the characters, their society, or the setting in general? Have I glossed over description with generics rather than taking the effort to use specifics? Places where the text seems dull, can I recast the scene or information to make it flow better? Are the beginning and the end on the same subject? Has the main character changed as a result of the development during the story? If he hasn’t, should he?

Is the story as a whole, one story? Or is it a series of events (however interesting) that are not an integral whole?

Are the happenings described, clear and unambiguous?

I pore over the story printed out on paper and on screen looking for obvious failures of the above.

Harder to describe, are there moments in the text where there is more …energy (?) than others? Are such places appropriate? Are there weak moments that rearranging the words could give more of that sort of energy?

Are there any moments in the story that resonate for me?

I have a fairly lengthy list of words and phrases I examine closely. I no longer do what I once did when I realized thanks to an editor that in a novel I had severely overused the word "then." I just deleted EVERY occurence in the entire novel. *laughs*

That's going too far.

I also watch for spots where I find myself going back to read something again because I didn't understand it the first time.

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And "there" very frequently signals a sentence that needs to be reworded.

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Of late, I've been using the seek-and-find feature of my word processor to remove all, or almost all, the adverbs that end in "ly." Can't say that it's improved anything, but it seems to read better when I'm done.

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Hmmm...from the responses I start wondering -- checking on -ly words and a few odd things like "there" is that all "editing your work" means? Grammar and punctuation and spelling checks?

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I know what you mean. Compared to some of the examples given already, my editing almost borders upon rewriting. I don't get to line editing until my fourth draft.

My second draft I focus on plot holes and character development.

My third draft I focus on proportions/pacing.(This is my slash and burn stage)

My fourth draft I focus on line editing.

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I know what you mean. Compared to some of the examples given already, my editing almost borders upon rewriting. I don't get to line editing until my fourth draft.

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From what I've read, ever writer has their own style. It's important to find what works best for you, but I don't feel there is one perfect way to write and edit. Some writers lay down text with blazing speed, then have to edit heavily. Others go much slower, but have little editing to do when they're done. Some edit several times with a different purpose each time, while others edit once or twice and work on everything at once.

I think it's good to know how others edit; you can adopt the ideas that work best for you.

Personally, I've found that my short stories works best either lightly edited or completely re-written. My novel will be different, I know a large part of the editing process will be punching it up. I wrote it fast and didn't dwell on detail or description. I'll be looking for those bland areas as I edit.

Step two I re-write for style, I pay special attention to how things are exposed, how smooth transitions are, and my pacing. But my priority here is clarity.

Step three is polish, I fine-tune the writing and do a "zoom in" approach, microscopic, and I turn every sentence from steel into a porshe.

And I set it aside again, and if I don't like my product, I repeat the entire procedure.

It is all too easy to spend a long time stressing over a particular paragraph, or even a line, that simply cannot form into "the right words." if I worrying about this ins a scene I may end up cutting, or shortening, or even re-writing, then I am wasting my time. I star macro and work my way micro.

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And "there" very frequently signals a sentence that needs to be reworded.

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This is really good advice. I went back to my WiP and found that 98% of the sentances with "there" in it could be reworded into a much better one. I did wonder if an exception could be when "there" is refering to a place, like "Come down from there."

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pay attention to consistency, and a plot development. Does it work? Does it make sense?

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I must admit that I cheat in a way. When I'm writing, every day when I start I go back and read what I read the day before and if I don't like it, I edit it at that point, so when I do my edit I have already gone over it once and also already incorporated comments from my readers.

Then I do line edits. Then I read it to see that it reads all right. I won't be cutting scenes at that point. I just want to be sure that it reads well. Truthfully, I rarely cut scenes. That is simply not how I write. If I write a scene then I pretty certainly need it in the novel.

I agree that someone who hasn't pre-plotted their book and "writes on the fly" especially if they write very fast may well need to do a very different kind of editing first. However, at some point you need to get to the line edit stage.

I can't even imagine doing eight or ten edits. I would go absolutely nuts. But I know people who can't imagine taking the initial trouble over planning their novel that I do and sweating blood over every sentence. We all have our own ways of writing and editing, but sometimes we can pick up some hints from each other.

Edit: I just realized that none of us mentioned having readers. I do always have at least 4 readers for my work. They give me fairly extensive notes and I go over those. Many I will agree with and incorporate particularly when it is something more than one reader comments on. Three of my readers are also authors, one is simply an extremely intelligent "reader" (using it in the sense of someone who reads widely) who gives me some of my best advice. I depend on this a lot for making sure that what I mean is getting across.

My next WIP I've started outlining and plotting out scenes, with varying success. We'll see what happens. At least the first draft seems cleaner so far, since I' clearer of the story.

Okay, for short stories, I spend a couple of days writing it "in my head", then I sit down and hammer it out, usually in one day, if possible. I let it sit, then read through it in a couple of days, or weeks, even. Usually I notice some stuff right off the bat--weak characterization, unclear progression are pretty common elements. I rewrite, then submit for comments, then rewrite from there. During all this time I'm tinkering with line edits. Of course, I've yet to submit anything...