Every book needs an editor, regardless of how great the writer is. Every writer needs to revision, regardless of how great the story is. Why? Because as human beings we know what it is supposed to stay, and we tend to read it as that, instead of reading it for what it does say.

In my revision efforts, as I begin book 2 of my series and prepare to publish 2 short stories, one from a signed author, and one from myself I have begun implementing things that I learned by practice with book 1.

1 - Read it out loud: I've heard this mantra and often practiced it as a freelance writer, however I did not find myself doing this as easily with my fiction. Book 1 paid for it. By then time I finished the first 'final revision' I was kicking myself because I missed so many of the simple forms of editing that I could have and would have gotten by reading it out loud.

2 - ReRead it to a friend, a voice recording, a child (if it's friendly therefore): This will help you hone what the story content is about, so you can enhance it.

3 - If you're uncertain about something - ASK - most people are not interested in stealing your work. Few are interested in doing so before you have it published and even fewer will actually carry through if the book is still a WIP. Don't be shy about asking. If you are honestly interested in being published, you can't afford to be shy about your work, so if you're not certain something flows well, or that it expresses what you need it to, ask someone for feedback. If you're not sure you want to do so publicly (as some people are creeps regardless of what's created) nudge someone privately. Every forum, this one, facebook, even twitter has a way to hold a conversation effectively in private. Use. it.

4 - Organization: I never have enough of it. I actually had a short story MS that I worked hard to edit and refine and then the day came to publish and I published the unedited, unrevised, just barely passed the initial work in progress MS. I have rarely been more embarrassed in my life. This was horrible and can be traced back to my poor organizational skills. These skills continually need improved but keeping my edits separate from the WIP and those separate from the 'final' make all the difference. Find an organizational rhythm that works for you.

Now, that's what I've learned (even the hard way) what tools do you use to keep your MS organized, progressing and polished?

Reading out loud is my favourite way of catching typos and clumsy sentence structures. I do it with everything I publish - it's the best way to revise your work.

Before I read out loud, I print it off and read through. Often, you can pick up typos and spellings that you miss on the computer screen. And it's good to have a hard copy of your work as well as the file saved on the computer. It's not so important in the case of articles, but what if your computer went down with 90% of your novel on it, and you couldn't recover the data? At least if you have a hard copy you can salvage it. That's probably me being technophobic and not trusting the computer but hey, it's the way I am.

Brilliant point about printing it out. That's a good strategy I should be employing more often. 

As to the backup, I actually don't keep my novel strictly on my computer any more. I use dropbox. it does 2 things, 1 keeps the work backed up to a cloud, which gives me access to the work anywhere at any time & 2 it protects my work from being lost in the event of either user error or computer issue

Do you use a pen to mark it then? Or do you just read and make adjustments direct to MS on computer when you edit that way?

I catch 90% of mistakes when I print out a document I'm revising.

I catch and additional 30% of mistakes when I read it aloud.

I know, I know: something's off with my math! How can you have 120% mistakes!? Well, I often don't realize the word choice is off! Or that I've used the same word 16 times in the same short paragraph until I read something aloud.

TheLadyWrites (02:06pm Sun, Sep  2, 2012)

Do you use a pen to mark it then? Or do you just read and make adjustments direct to MS on computer when you edit that way?

I make adjustments as I go - it's easier that way, and it makes sure that nothing gets missed. I take Flannerycam's point about catching repeated words and phrases with reading aloud too - I missed that out of my points, but hey, that's what discussions are for.

Even the best-selling authors are not immune from repetition. I love Linda La Plante's Above Suspicion series, but if I had £10 for every time a character made or took 'copious notes,' I'd be nearly as rich as she is. And she has editors and proofreaders to pick up after her!

Amen to printing out. Nothing as therapeutic as red pen and editors marks you learned from an Encyclopedia that was at least 100 years old ha ha.

Yes! Reading it out loud is probably the best first step when it comes to making sure that everything is in place. I used to read my chapters in character with full emotions just to get the feel and make sure that everything works find both technically and emotionally.