Editing is essential. Whether you do it as you write the story and loop back through prior chapters to smooth them out or whether you wait until you have a first draft in hand, you need to edit. (Especially as you get older. I seem to be dropping more words as I type these days than I used to, so at least one pass is needed just to see that that word I thought I’d included didn’t actually make it to the page.)
My own personal editing process involves a fairly substantial second draft on any novel. Two of the seven I’ve completed required a gutting and rewriting of 90% of the novel. The others required a more normal for me pass where I added description so readers could actually picture the scene and so dialogue scenes could actually include more than just the words that were said.
After that I do passes to deepen the point of view by removing filtering words (saw, heard, felt, thought, etc.) and also look for my own personal bugaboos (further/farther, lay/lie, etc.)
I also run spellcheck. It’s pretty much the only way I know to make sure that a character name stays the same name throughout the entire book. (I write each name down the first time spellcheck flags it and then tell spellcheck to ignore that word. If it crops up again and it isn’t in a possessive form or plural form, then I know I have a spelling error to address.)
I’m lucky that I spent a good fifteen years of my professional life writing reports for people with extensive vocabularies and an eye for the littlest mistake. They sit in the back of my mind as I write pointing out the proper usage of words like affect vs. effect so I don’t have to go back for most of those.
But, if you haven’t had that kind of “wonderful” training (we once spent an hour and a half in a business meeting debating whether you use its or their when referencing the compliance department), it’s helpful to read a few resources that point out to you what you may not know yet.
And one of those happens to be in the NaNoWriMo StoryBundle (which is only available for two more days and which you knew I had to mention at least one more time, right?). It’s called Blood From Your Own Pen by Sam Knight and it’s full of good advice. There are some points I disagree on because that’s just the type of person I am, but overall I think it’s a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about formatting or editing. And, of course, me being the chatty type I am, I also liked the style it was written in.
It’s part of the base package for the StoryBundle, so you could get it and three other books for just $5! But you have to act now. (And, really, if you’re going to buy the bundle why not upgrade to the full bundle? Just sayin’.)
M.L. Humphrey 
I go by what Samuel Johnson supposedly said – Re-read your work, and when you come across a paragraph you feel is particularly well-written , CUT IT OUT!
Works most times 😂
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