Editing is something that is necessary for your book. It's impossible to write a perfect, fully formed book without error (Trust me, I'm still looking into it) and though it can be tedious, and take time away from writing, if you want to display quality, it must be done.
1. Self-Editing
First of all, I think that it is best to wait until the book is entirely finished until you start editing, and to do it only once(yourself), to give yourself time to move on to the next project, unless you fully believe that this book is your masterpiece. I try to look back on each book as a learning experience, and it's hard, but moving on to the next one is the best way to showcase your new writing skills, not editing the hell out of the same book until you resent it.
This process can be difficult, and sometimes you'll lose track of what you're doing, but I've found what works for me so maybe it can work for you too.
-make sure that you know everything there is to know about your characters and plot before you start
-make notes of what you want to look for (I use sticky notes that I put all around my laptop screen to look up at every once in a while as a tangible reminder
ex. changing the specific qualities of a character, making sure the whole book is in the same tense, the writing style, the mood, etc.
-use a program that makes the process easier (I do not suggest Wattpad for this, because you have to exit to get to each chapter. Google Docs is my preferred program)
2. Peer Editing
One of the things that I'd reccomend the most, is to not only edit your book yourself, but to have a minimum of one trusted friend to do the same. (In exchange, you can offer to do the same for them)
Google Docs makes this easy because of the suggesting tool, so that someone can't make any changes without ntofying you and you can either accept or reject the suggestions.
-ask questions
ex. Where did you feel like the story really started? What was your least favourite part and why? If you could remove one character, who would it be? Why did you keep reading?
