on The Write Life:

Ah, the line edit: one of the least favorite duties of any writer.

As off-putting as it may be, the line edit is, nevertheless, the point at which your rough first draft starts to present itself as a cleaner, more involving and enjoyable reading experience.

But line editing isn’t just one single task all by itself. Rather, it’s a venerable smorgasbord of jobs – checking for errors in grammar and punctuation, tracking down passive voice, investigating overblown dialogue tags, weeding out redundancies and repetitive phrasing…

The list goes on and on.

Here are the top three line edits you can perform to get maximum benefit in minimum time – so you can have a happier time crafting that second draft.

Now, let’s make that writing shine with these editing tips.