The first is to let it sit. This allows me to get some distance from the story and really ask "is it working?"
Then I read it very slowly, making line edits. I also ask myself questions about it, such as "is the POV for this scene the correct one?" "Does the order of scenes make sense?" "Are all of the scenes needed to comprehend the story?" "Did I leave out an important scene?" "Does something happen in each scene, or did I throw in some just to provide continuity that I could get by with a line or two of exposition somewhere else?"
Once I think I have that all figured out, I turn it over to a couple of different people. I have maybe 4-5 different betas that I work with off and on. Not all always have free time, but usually at least one will give the work a look over and tell me if there are any ways of fixing it. Some of their suggestions are pretty minor - a line edit here, a comma there. But often they'll suggest major overhauls to the entire story. If the story gets an overhaul, I tend to submit it again, until they're content.
I also tend to use Critters.org (if you don't write SF, F, or horror, I'd recommend www.critiquecircle.com instead. Also, Absolute Write can be helpful) as a final set of "eyes". The problem with most of my betas is that we tend to see things more or less the same way. So while they'll catch stuff that I should have caught, they often won't catch completely and totally different things. And having a bunch of other people look at my story and say, "That didn't make sense" or "that seemed a little off" or whatever can spare me from submitting something really awful. (And, again, if major changes are made, I submit again.)
It's a long process but! It seems to work, and keeps me from getting too complacent, I think.
(Note that I try not to inflict super rough stuff on either my betas or a critique group as it tends to make their eyes glaze over to where they're correcting typos and doing line edits rather than catching fatal flaws with the manuscript.)
no subject
The first is to let it sit. This allows me to get some distance from the story and really ask "is it working?"
Then I read it very slowly, making line edits. I also ask myself questions about it, such as "is the POV for this scene the correct one?" "Does the order of scenes make sense?" "Are all of the scenes needed to comprehend the story?" "Did I leave out an important scene?" "Does something happen in each scene, or did I throw in some just to provide continuity that I could get by with a line or two of exposition somewhere else?"
Once I think I have that all figured out, I turn it over to a couple of different people. I have maybe 4-5 different betas that I work with off and on. Not all always have free time, but usually at least one will give the work a look over and tell me if there are any ways of fixing it. Some of their suggestions are pretty minor - a line edit here, a comma there. But often they'll suggest major overhauls to the entire story. If the story gets an overhaul, I tend to submit it again, until they're content.
I also tend to use Critters.org (if you don't write SF, F, or horror, I'd recommend www.critiquecircle.com instead. Also, Absolute Write can be helpful) as a final set of "eyes". The problem with most of my betas is that we tend to see things more or less the same way. So while they'll catch stuff that I should have caught, they often won't catch completely and totally different things. And having a bunch of other people look at my story and say, "That didn't make sense" or "that seemed a little off" or whatever can spare me from submitting something really awful. (And, again, if major changes are made, I submit again.)
It's a long process but! It seems to work, and keeps me from getting too complacent, I think.
(Note that I try not to inflict super rough stuff on either my betas or a critique group as it tends to make their eyes glaze over to where they're correcting typos and doing line edits rather than catching fatal flaws with the manuscript.)