How do you edit?
I edit by printing out one chapter at a time, go through it with a red pen, correct it in my draft and move on. Once that's done, I plan on reading it through to see if it sticks together. I find it hard work (and tedious) but it has to be done. It has got me thinking, though, how do you edit? I might be able to pick up some worthwhile approaches.
This is roughly how I tend to work, but it's not cast in stone.
I rarely edit as I'm going along unless I read what I wrote the day before and decide it's crap. Or I put in a scene or event the reader should have been prepared for earlier, for example, when I'll go back to insert that change. Or I suddenly have a brainwave regarding one of the 'red type' passages I got stuck on earlier in the story.
So, 1st edit is on-screen. I go through all the bits in red text (where I wasn't really happy with something, or I'd missed stuff out) and force myself to write something sensible. At this stage any obvious spelling/duplication I notice gets fixed. I'll also check the timeline, because if you're writing historical fiction from single character POV's and they may be in different places, when things happen must seem logical to both their situations and the reader's perspective (ie because communications were poor or non-existent the reader may know something has happened before a character, if you get my drift).
2nd edit is on-screen again and is when most punctuation, duplication, unecessary conjunctions and, er, 'style' errors are looked at and amended (eg. in a two-way conversation you don't always need to say who's speaking at every change). By this time the MS ought to be in a reasonable shape.
So 3rd edit is printed, read through and had-written amendments made. I go through the whole MS before transferring these to the file copy and mark each chapter when it's done so there are no duplications. The revision will then get printed and a copy goes to my beta-reader(s). Depending on comments I might revise particular areas again, but if not I'll do another read-through just to be sure I'm happy. If I were self-pubbing I'd do a line-edit (one of the worst jobs in the world).
Then I just have to do something with the MS otherwise I'd edit it again, and again, and again...
But that's just me :)
Ah. So now I would read through the last edit (previous post) checking for better words, sentences and somewhere along the line would change the word at the end of the penultimate sentence from 'be' to 'me'. Duh.
I tend to read through the whole MS from top to bottom in my editor concerned with a particular aspect at a time, for example concentrating on rhythm and sentence structure. Others checks take place at the same time but only if I notice them,as with incorrect word usage like 'there' instead of 'their' which automatic checks might not spot. I tend to do it all the time now, even during a first draft and still writing.
Also, I have noticed how the rhythm changes when reading a print-out as opposed to my laptop screen, so printing it is required at some stage(s). I find it helps for this reason to output to PDF format, which mimics print for me better than my word processor. That though might be just be. I guess it comes down to whatever works for the individual.