I’m working through the edits for a book that is due with my editor on 25 July, and I could very easily just blast through the last few pages, and just send it.

But I’m not like that. I prefer to take my time and make sure that I have everything done.

Of course, I’ve already read through the manuscript and altered it, added or deleted from it countless number of times That can often take me a few times before I’m happy to proceed with the final edit.

So what do I do when I’m running a final edit?

The first thing I do is read through it and add in or take anything that does make sense. This might be taking out words because I got over wordy trying to explain something, or used too many words in a sentence.

The next step is to use ProWriting Aid to go through it and make sure that things make sense. I sometimes accept the changes it recommends, and sometimes  I don’t, because it will change my voice if I go with their suggestions.

Then I like to run it through a text to speech to hear it. This is invaluable in picking up those errors that you miss because you’ve already read it forty times. It will pick up those ‘is, if, it, in, of’ that you’ve misspelled. Sometimes it misreads words like retrain (ret rain)???

My last step is to spellcheck before I format and get it ready to send through to my editor.