My pet hate is editing my own work, it seems such a chore to keep reading over the same thing over and over again. You've spewed forth your imagination onto the page in a flurry of words and now it all has to be scrutinized and changed. Editing is essential. A good tip I read a long time ago was to write the first draft of your work as quickly as possible without agonising over the content ie, grammar, sentence construction and punctuation etc. When you have finished it put it away for a week or even longer, after that time take it out and look at it with fresh eyes, as you do so apply the following.
. Read the manuscript and get an overall feel of it. Does it flow? Are there errors in the plot? (holes, that's happened to me before). Look at the strengths and weakness of the writing, is it concise? Or too wordy? Look at the pace, writing style and language usage.
. Then go through the work for typos, grammar and spelling mistakes and look at sentence construction. Are your sentences too long or too short?
. Finally proof read your work, check the layout and all of the above.
. Rewrite as necessary
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