The art of editing

   Editing is just as important as writing. I never send a manuscript to the writing group before polishing it.There are exceptions to this rule, though. But, overall, I do polish them before submitting them to be critiqued.
   Searching for strategies and ideas to make the most out of my editing experience,  I consulted literary journals and books that talked about editing. These are my conclusions. I hope you will find them useful:

  The first stage of the editing process is to grab the big picture (macro-editing):
-Characters: what are their motives? Are they clear? Are they credible?
- Intention: what is the purpose? What am I trying to convey?
-Structure: do scenes flow well? Do I give too much information at the beginning? Or do I give so little that the reader doesn't get hooked to it? Check tension and climax. Do all the parts hold well together? Sometimes it may be necessary to reorder scenes.
-Theme: during the editing process, I may work on making it more clear through a recurrent idea or imagery.

Then the second stage is the one that deals with all the details. Now I read very slowly:
-Language: I pay attention to word choice. I may change words if I find better ones to express the same thing. I reread carefully to get rid of cliches. I avoid language that sounds artificial. I pay attention to unnecessary repetition. (Sometimes, there is stylish repetition and that is o.k) or redundant ideas ( what I call over-telling).
-Clarity.
-Dialogues.
-Continuity
-Beginnings, endings and transitions.
 One more tip: if something doesn't sound right and I don't know why, I rewrite it.
  Finally, I read the text in a loud voice to know how it sounds. I change  whatever I need to change.
 
  Then I send it to the writing group. The next stage of editing happens after  I read  my fellow writers' feedback.
  Sometimes editing feels like a never-ending task. But I enjoy the reward of ending up with a polished manuscript that I 'm willing to submit for publication...