What do you notice when you edit your stories?

[spark]

My current writing process is to draft a story based on what I outline in my mind, usually while trying to fall asleep.   Once i draft the story, I revisit it when I have time and listen to it read aloud (Microsoft Word has a good read-aloud function).  I use the free Grammarly function and Editor function to help with the grammar and spelling.    What I notice that my initial draft is heavy passive voice, which is sometimes good, but usually not.  There are a lot of superfluous words, which Grammarly doesn't like.  It can create a problem with dialog, since I tend to use them when I speak.

I've even had superfluous paragraphs.  I listen to the excerpt and realize it's clunky, and eventually, I realize that the whole paragraph is useless.

FTR- I'm a high school teacher, and I've seen well-known authors (I'm looking at Amy Tan) fall victim to this.   News articles are really bad at this, because they had whole paragraphs that repeat what they said above it.

I tend to review my stories four times before I publish, and the first edit takes longer than the draft, and then the third and fourth drafts tend fix the voice.

After you review your drafts what issues do you tend to notice in your first drafts?

[ValentinesStuff]

I'm currently working on putting a story I wrote on YouTube using a text to speech program. Sadly I've noticed quite a few missing or superfluous words. A few oddly worded sentences. As opposed to the current ones on YouTube, I am actually working on getting the words pronounced correctly. I am surprised at the number of common words that are mispronounced.

[LtlGary]

I use the word 'that' way too much and apparently I don't know how to use commas. I have a bad habit of putting them in when I don't need them and vice versa.

[Little Matt]

I'm terrible at self-editing. I know what meant to to say, and that heavily influences what I see when I reread. Grammarly is a godsend.

[crono]

When writing dialog, I sometimes want to rush certain scenes but then realize how it doesn't help the story whatsoever. 

[spark]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:03 AM, LtlGary said:

I use the word 'that' way too much and apparently I don't know how to use commas. I have a bad habit of putting them in when I don't need them and vice versa.

Commas are weird that way.  I sometimes will get a string of clauses and then realize I need to put more periods in.   I use 'really' a lot, and Grammarly hates it when I do.

[BoTox]

I use "just" way too much. It just finds its way in. 

[Cute_Kitten]

Alas, I'm a lazy sod and rarely do I edit anything or proofread. Unless it's something I'm putting up on Amazon, then I spell check and edit. But for posting on forums I'm usually too excited to share what I wrote so I post "hot off the press". I've had some fun typos that way- like in "Naughty Christmas" there was a blue can instead of cane.??. I do have a partially complete update for that story sitting in my computer, just need time to finish it. 

[ValentinesStuff]

1 hour ago, BoTox said:

I use "just" way too much. It just finds its way in. 

Surely you just.

[spark]

6 hours ago, Cute_Kitten said:

Alas, I'm a lazy sod and rarely do I edit anything or proofread. Unless it's something I'm putting up on Amazon, then I spell check and edit. But for posting on forums I'm usually too excited to share what I wrote so I post "hot off the press". I've had some fun typos that way- like in "Naughty Christmas" there was a blue can instead of cane.??. I do have a partially complete update for that story sitting in my computer, just need time to finish it. 

For me, it's not an OCD thing.   Unless it's a response to a post, I need to edit it because my brain is faster than my fingers.   I'll have stuff that changes what I'm saying.  One thing for doing is forgetting to not in a sentence that I mean to negate the object.   In the above sentence, I mean: It's not an OCD thing, but i write that it is.   I'll also use homophones incorrectly.  For example their instead of there.   People would assume that I don't know the difference between the two, but that's not true.  The issue is that I'm typing the thoughts in my head, which I often mouth out when I'm writing, and don't realize I recorded the wrong homophone.

I think a lot of stories on Amazon could do better with editing because they are often unreadable, and my first drafts often have the same flaw.  The idea is there, but the sentence structure and wording are so inefficient that it's a pain to read.    The editing process, especially my process, is laborous, but the result is often 1000 better because it flows so much better.