The single most useful edit you can do before you send anything to anyone: Read it out loud. The whole thing. Every sentence. You will hear every place the rhythm breaks, every word that doesn't belong, every line of dialogue that no human being would actually say. Your eye skips over problems because it already knows what you meant to write. Your ear doesn't lie. It catches everything. It is embarrassing how much a single read-aloud will fix. Do it alone. Do it in a weird voice if it helps. just do it.
I second this, only--have someone (or something) else read it. After all, if YOU read it aloud, your eyes are still going to report what you think you wrote, and that's what you'll read aloud.
I use text-to-voice software to read my work aloud, and it does in fact help me catch things I missed when editing it visually. Especially where I've accidentally left out a word or doubled up on one.
























