Coming to the close of my story – What are some good editing tips I can use when going over everything?

[Guest]

You know, these are tough times, stress and fear are always with us.

[Levy]

Highlight all the text and underline it. Then when you've edited a section, remove the underlines from that section. This way you can't miss any parts.

I also recommend editing the first draft on paper. Print it off and use a red pen, then go through and make those fixes on the digital version. You see more when it's printed compared to on the screen.

[Rosteet]

Hire a professional editor.

[Erika]

Step away from the manuscript for at least a week before starting a self edit.

[Adele]

I purchased Auto Crit, and it has been a game changer. It has all kinds of things it looks for (like how many times you’ve repeated things, passive voice, unnecessary filler words, telling instead of showing, etc), and makes it so much easier to see and edit.

Sometimes I look at it and wonder how the hell I didn’t see I used the same word (like was) 6 times in a paragraph.

If that’s not an option, find/search words like just, that, really, then, and had and clean those up.

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[Alivia]

Does it tie back to the complete storyline.... in other words are there any parts that stick out and should they

[Mystic]

Watch for "to be" verbs and change them to strong, action verbs. Then you can delete all the unnecessary adverbs.

Your story will move faster and the reader will enjoy the read more.

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[Burkley]

I like to run it through my speak program. It sounds like a robot. But it'll help you find punctuation errors.