I have been wanting to edit my main series for a while and get the second draft done. However, I have been focusing so much on my new series and work that I haven't done anything with it. I know that I have to add a lot of descriptions, fix a decent amount of grammar/spelling, and remove certain things that are either unnecessary or create minor plot holes. Though it doesn't help that every time I get the chance to edit it, I can't seem to come up with the right descriptions to add. It's not because I don't know what I want the scenes or people to look like but more of a lack of knowing what the right words would be. I also have the problem where I cringe every time I read my old work because it doesn't have the best grammar. Thanks, Grammarly.
Are there any thoughts or ideas that you may have to help me actually edit my series when I have time? Anything would be helpful.
Well, when I edit, I pick a song that's about five minutes and then do a sort of musical chairs session with words where I speed edit as much as I can before the music runs out. Afterwards, I sit and read what I fixed and if I like it, I move onto the next chunk and repeat.
That really only helps the problem of how to get started and keep editing though the cringe though. Solving the issue of how to edit is a different one.
What you're talking about sounds more like rewriting than editing though. If it's to the point where you can't come up with the right descriptions to add and you're at a loss, it might be worth it to just start that bit over and use your old scene as the base. Basically, start on a fresh page and rewrite the scene with the same idea but with new words instead of trying to shove new life into old stuff.
Back to how to edit... if you're talking about editing the mechanics of your story (individual sentences and grammar), it's probably worth it to literally edit sentence by sentence. Like cut it out and look at it in isolation from the rest of the paragraph. Do that for a whole paragraph, and then look at the paragraph as a whole for cohesion. Then edit that paragraph and move onto the next.
If you're talking about editing for story structure... Well, that requires you to have a complete arc or story to begin with, so the only real thing you can do is write until a good stopping point and then go back to see if things make sense. The Three Act structure, or the Three Disasters structure, or some other story structure framework is useful here to see where pieces line up.
All else failing though... you could just force an insanely difficult time pressure. Like trying to edit a thousand words in two minutes. That tends to force the mind to think fast and look only at the bare essentials.
