Strike, Color, Correct, Repeat

March is commonly known as NaNoEdMo, or National Novel Editing Month, at least in my circles. It's that time of the year that after NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month in December) that enough time has elapsed that you can go back and look at the crap novel that you wrote in November for NaNoWriMo and edit it into something that people might actually read. So does it surprise me that this month we are talking about editing? No!

What is your favorite method of editing? Do you print it all out and paint it red? Do you use a computer program like Scrivener or Liquid Story Binder to arrange things? Or maybe you just trash the first draft and try it all over again?

I would print it out, but I would have NO paper and NO ink left over and that would be bad! I don't use computer programs. But I do tend to, on occasion, trash the whole thing and start over. But that doesn't happen that often. Instead, I tend to strike stuff that is being deleted. Why? Because unless it is the beginning of the year, I can't afford to lose those words for WriYe! Then, I start using colors. Ever verification period for WriYe is a different color. This way, if I'm in a document I've worked on before, the new stuff for each verification I write will be a different color. So it may end up looking like this:

Then at the beginning of the next year, I go in and actually delete the stricken words and change all the colors to black if I need to keep working on it. Sometimes even the colored words get struck. It just depends on how often I edit, or feel the need to edit.

What do you find the most in your editing? Are you a repeated-word-abuser? A comma-phile? Or maybe your grammar just ain't no good?

I tend to use the same word over and over and over and over and over again. And typically my dialogue sucks! But mostly I feel like this:

So that's the way I edit.