Editing Tips Anyone?

Well guess what? I just finished my mega long, mega painful assembly of badly placed words I choose to call my novel. It took a year *wipes brow* but now it's officially done!
Still. It is very far from perfect and I am going to start my second draft soon. I just wanted to know if anyone has any tips on editing? Or has anyone ever edited a novel and found it difficult?
Thanks

Two tips:

-- Give it a while. A couple of weeks at least. This lets you get the sort of distance you need to be able to evaluate everything objectively.

-- Print everything off, then read through it and mark down everything you wanna change with a red pen.

My tip would be to try reading some parts out aloud so you don't skim over mistakes you may make when reading in your head.

I echo Sureal's thing about letting the story settle for a while. Also, when I edit a long project of mine, I kept another blank document in Microsoft Word open where I could dump all of the paragraphs or scenes that didn't work. This way I can get them out of the way of my novel during the second draft, but I still have those ideas in case I decide I need them later.

And, seriously, don't be afraid to change things. If you start reading over it and realize that this one character just isn't fitting properly, find the courage to chop him out of existence! Editing is very much an intuitive process, for me, at least.

Best of luck! ^^

Be prepared to feel like you're the worst writer ever and that there is too much editing to be done and the project is far too big and that you'll never get it done. Yes, it can be overwhelming. But it can be overcome... honest.

I was once told by someone that reading a piece backwards helps you catch mistakes because you aren't reading the plot but the actual words. It'll help you catch some grammer errors. Of course, I would go through each chapter seperate xD

Also, once you've gone through it a few times, and feel confident enough, let someone else read it. A friend or family member. They'll defiantly catch mistakes you missed. 'Tis always best to have another pair of eyes.

Snoink wrote:Be prepared to feel like you're the worst writer ever and that there is too much editing to be done and the project is far too big and that you'll never get it done. Yes, it can be overwhelming. But it can be overcome... honest.

You've been reading my mind.

I've been struggling with this myself, and although all of these comments were helpful, I thought I'd add a question of my own. How do you go about editing huge problems, like a character that you think should be remade, or seriously altered? Do you add and subtract scenes, change the dialogue around... or what?
Not even a character, a piece of plot, a theme... I feel like a novel is like a house of cards, and if I try to pull out a part of the foundation the whole thing will bend over itself.

Editing character problems usually means one or more of the following:

~ Accepting that major parts of the story will need to get rewritten/heavily altered
~ Accepting that some scenes you really like don't fit and they need to be cut (also, see point one)
~ Accepting that minor parts of the story might need to get rewritten
~ Sluging through editing most of the story as just about every scene fits the critiria above

As you can see, the common theme in the points above is major editing. You rewrite whatever doesn't work, and when you start looking at it, most of the stuff doesn't. You can keep basic framework, but usually a content overhaul like that means long editing hours. Sometimes the basic framework goes out the window as you realize just how far-reaching those changes are.

Sounds painful
Thanks for sharing the wisdom, rosey.
I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me...

The best way to do major edits of plot and character is to have used a plan in the first place so you could spot the problems before you spent hours writing stuff you'd chuck later. Sorry, not helpful is it.