There are two types or stages to editing. One is editing for content, and the other is editing for grammar. My advice is, use both Word and Google Docs for your editing purposes.
Google docs catches spelling, passive voice, and confusing or unnecessary wording and suggests changes. Word does this as well, but it won't always give you suggestions for your passive voice. I have found Word to be better at catching punctuation errors and mistakes.
When editing for content, I highly recommend highlighting. Highlight everything. Anything that you want to change and everything you think is unnecessary. A sentence that looks wrong. Anything. You can even color code it if you want.
Google docs is great with their suggestions feature. Let someone else read it on suggestion mode and give you feed back. PEER REVIEW SAVES LIVES. More on that to come.
If you are looking for consistency, you can highlight the place where those ideas are used and see if they are too repetitive or if they change in meaning or connotation throughout your story. Google docs makes this easy with their 'find and replace' feature. Just type in the words you want it to find and you can edit the story piece by piece or completely change every place where that word is used. So helpful.
If you are just looking for spelling errors that aren't pointed out, change the font. I'm serious. Go ahead and change it to roboto, lobster, or something else. As long as you can still tell what it says. This is the best advice I've ever been given on this matter.
The new font will trick your brain into thinking that it is a new story and you will be fored to focus on each individual word instead of each sentence. You'll catch a lot more mistakes this way because you'll be paying more attention. Trust me.
Also, save multiple places! Save one copy to Word, one to a notes app, one to a Google Doc, and even one to Wattpad. Save everywhere and save often. Save every two paragraphs. Google docs is nice because you can get into your account on almost any device, as long as you know the code.
Keep a note of passwords. I have done this and it has saved my butt more times than I can count. List everything you need to know about your accounts, your school codes, your address, important phone numbers, any numbers that are important. Keep them somewhere only you can get to. Don't risk forgetting it.
Also, for just life in general, keep a calendar. Please keep a calendar. It will help you so so much. Also, organize your apps into simple categories that you can remember. You spend a limot of time on your phone, make it convenient.
NOTE APPS! NOTE APPS! NOTE APPS! They are really really helpful. Trust me, I use them all the time. My favorite has been: Simple Notepad. It has no character limit that I have been able to reach (I wrote an entire fanfic in there) and I sometimes write chapters there. It even lets you make checklists. So cool!
Another thing that I already mentioned, don't edit, rewrite. When I say this, I am talking about editing for content. If you like the story idea but not where the story is going, restart. You have more experience and you have eliminated one possible outcome through process of elimination. Start new and fresh. Don't bother trying to change everything that is there and end up changing something every other sentence. Rewrite.
For more tips on editing, just ask.
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Writing Tips &Tricks
Non-FictionThis is where I will publish all of my most helpful tips and advice for writing along with my own experiences as a writer and an occasional character profile, describing how I go about writing those characters. I hope that this helps you become mo...
