I edit as I go, which is for the best as I have a few issues from being hit in the head with two tonnes of taxi. Rereading sections a few times as I work through a piece helps me to better remember what has already gone before in a story, and also lets me pick up quickly on all the small errors I introduce due to a combination of right hand/brain being slightly out of sync and mild aphasia (damn nouns! First to go every time!) I often write after work and these are both more pronounced when I am tired.
Editing as I go also lets me keep a tight hold on the tone of a story, which sometimes changes from what I thought it was going to be when I set off. Perhaps a problem is smaller, so it needs people to be worried rather than terrified. Perhaps a story wants to be a comedy rather than a drama, so it needs a certain archness throughout rather than being straightforward with the occasional funny line. These things are reasonably easier to reassess on the fly and to tweak the tale to make what comes before go with what is happening now, whereas if you leave it until the end, it is a lot more work to smooth everything out into a coherent whole.
In terms of process, for editing on the fly, I have a notebook beside me in which I list all the major events of the story: things that are written in are ticked off with pencil, things I planned to write then changed my mind about are crossed out with pen. I also have a list of all names and their correct spelling. I try to run a non-automatic spellcheck once every few days where I Ignore All for the names that are correct: super fast way of spotting hard typos.
I try to read through first and just change paragraphs that have issues to underlined or red or some other super-easy change so that I don't have to stop and make big fixes at that point. This read is partially for spotting typos and such, but mostly for spotting sections that drag or that spend too long away from the main action. If there are sections that just aren't working, I usually need to solve that problem before I can move on with the story. I don't always need to write it up: sometimes I can just highlight a section and put in a note like CUT BY A THIRD – TIGHTER, MORE ACTION, MAKE MORE PHYSICAL, which solves the problem in my head even if I still need to do the work later. If I have a bit of time, I will do all the little typo fixes after this read. If I have a lot of time, I will do a second proofing read and spot as many literal errors as possible.
I don't read through the whole thing every time I sit down to write, because I write long things and I would run out of time. But I do read through the most recent scene or scenes to make sure that new writing fits in as seamlessly as possible.
Ideally, I get to the end of a piece before sending it off to beta: this is not always possible for fest fics due to deadlines. For significant changes made after a beta sees it, I colour them in green or blue or some such so that it is easy to find them and the beta can just look to them for sanity or typing rather than reading through the whole thing again. I also try to have a two or three-day break before reading through the story as a whole. Here I again try not to get bogged down looking for small edits, but instead am looking for big issues: the wrong tone, sections that drag, characters who stop acting the right way or who change for no reason. If I have time, I will do a final proofing read which I sometimes do paragraph by paragraph and backwards, as it stops you getting lost in the story.
At all times I keep my notebook by my side so that I can make notes like HOUSE BURNS DOWN AT 3000 WORD MARK, X LEARNS ABOUT IT AT 4200, Y AT 5000. I also make meta notes about the timeline so that I can let things that happen 'offscreen' filter into the story, too. A story might only need 10 pages of notes, or it might end up with a whole notebook.
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Editing as I go also lets me keep a tight hold on the tone of a story, which sometimes changes from what I thought it was going to be when I set off. Perhaps a problem is smaller, so it needs people to be worried rather than terrified. Perhaps a story wants to be a comedy rather than a drama, so it needs a certain archness throughout rather than being straightforward with the occasional funny line. These things are reasonably easier to reassess on the fly and to tweak the tale to make what comes before go with what is happening now, whereas if you leave it until the end, it is a lot more work to smooth everything out into a coherent whole.
In terms of process, for editing on the fly, I have a notebook beside me in which I list all the major events of the story: things that are written in are ticked off with pencil, things I planned to write then changed my mind about are crossed out with pen. I also have a list of all names and their correct spelling. I try to run a non-automatic spellcheck once every few days where I Ignore All for the names that are correct: super fast way of spotting hard typos.
I try to read through first and just change paragraphs that have issues to underlined or red or some other super-easy change so that I don't have to stop and make big fixes at that point. This read is partially for spotting typos and such, but mostly for spotting sections that drag or that spend too long away from the main action. If there are sections that just aren't working, I usually need to solve that problem before I can move on with the story. I don't always need to write it up: sometimes I can just highlight a section and put in a note like CUT BY A THIRD – TIGHTER, MORE ACTION, MAKE MORE PHYSICAL, which solves the problem in my head even if I still need to do the work later. If I have a bit of time, I will do all the little typo fixes after this read. If I have a lot of time, I will do a second proofing read and spot as many literal errors as possible.
I don't read through the whole thing every time I sit down to write, because I write long things and I would run out of time. But I do read through the most recent scene or scenes to make sure that new writing fits in as seamlessly as possible.
Ideally, I get to the end of a piece before sending it off to beta: this is not always possible for fest fics due to deadlines. For significant changes made after a beta sees it, I colour them in green or blue or some such so that it is easy to find them and the beta can just look to them for sanity or typing rather than reading through the whole thing again. I also try to have a two or three-day break before reading through the story as a whole. Here I again try not to get bogged down looking for small edits, but instead am looking for big issues: the wrong tone, sections that drag, characters who stop acting the right way or who change for no reason. If I have time, I will do a final proofing read which I sometimes do paragraph by paragraph and backwards, as it stops you getting lost in the story.
At all times I keep my notebook by my side so that I can make notes like HOUSE BURNS DOWN AT 3000 WORD MARK, X LEARNS ABOUT IT AT 4200, Y AT 5000. I also make meta notes about the timeline so that I can let things that happen 'offscreen' filter into the story, too. A story might only need 10 pages of notes, or it might end up with a whole notebook.