Editing is Where Your Story Finds Its Shape

I don’t know about you, but I always feel it is a massive achievement to finish a first draft of anything, whether that is a flash fiction, short story, novel or any piece of writing. The achievement is that you did it – you started it and you finished. You transferred something from your head to the page, often with major life distractions.
 
But the first draft is only the beginning.
 
Revision is where a story really starts to come out. It's the stage where characters become clearer, scenes become stronger, and themes begin to emerge with greater confidence.
 
It can be a daunting undertaking though, so, instead of tackling everything at once, chop the job itself into bits. Give yourself a different focus with each read-through. Look at the overall structure first. Then examine character motivation. Next, consider pacing, dialogue, description, and finally the language itself. I started to do this after reading the book Solutions for Novelists – Secrets of a Master Editor by Sol Stein. It’s aimed at novelists, but is principles can be used for any writing. That micro-detail scene by scene, character by character.  It really helped me to focus on one thing at a time, and to give it my full attention.
 
Reading your work aloud is a great tool for editing. You'll hear repetition, awkward phrasing, and places where the rhythm falters far more easily than you'll spot them on the page.

Don’t be afraid to remove something you've worked hard to write. That’s the hardest thing by far to do – to delete or remove something you spent so much time on, and that you are really proud of. A beautiful paragraph that slows the story is still slowing the story. Every sentence should have a purpose. It’s a really tough thing, but you HAVE to be tough, and brave! Save those beautiful words for another project it might fit into.
 
Be patient with your work. Editing isn't the part that comes after writing. It's part of writing.
 
Tell me, when you revise, what do you tackle first? Do you do big-picture structure, character, dialogue, or polishing individual sentences? I am really interested to hear about other writers’ working techniques, so do comment here to let me know.