Just like at the end of any writing stint, I have found myself with a lot of words.
Some of those words are great. They might be the best words I have ever written. At least they might be when they are arranged in this exact configuration. Move them around a little, and they will be terrible. Or great. I’m not really sure yet.
I have written about editing stories here several times, but I have to admit that I am not very good at it. I can write a thing, and I can rewrite a thing, but just moving pieces around I don’t know how to do. At least not well.
I have found what works for me is to take a section of a story I know needs some work and comment it out like code. I either make some marks around the section (/* — */), or I use line breaks, or I just cut it and move it to a different document. Then I read that section and rewrite it. Usually I clean up the flow of words, or I end up refocusing the segment on the right subject of character when I rewrite. It isn’t particularly intentional. After that, I go back to the original chunk of writing and lift particular sentences or phrases that I still like, and see if I can make them fit into the new writing.
I don’t think my method is particularly sophisticated. Other than being comfortable identifying comment marks at a glance, I’m not doing anything that requires more than a simple text editor. In fact, for a little while I used VSCODE as my main writing tool. Now, it’s mostly just google docs. I have scrivener but I barely use it.
I have a list of edits (rewrites) to do on two stories before I try sending them out. Then I have about five more stories that could use some tweaking. Then a couple more after that.
Best get to it.