How to Edit for Free?

It seems a lot of authors have enough petty cash lying around to hire an editor. I have no petty cash or any other kind of cash. Copy editing is really not an issue for me, and I really don't need some stranger telling me this word would be better. Fuck that. I use the words I want to use.

Developmental editing is another story. What would really be useful to me would be a developmental editor pointing out the boring parts. I'm pretty good at catching plot holes, but I'm not the best person to know what a reader will find boring. And I'm sure I have my share of boring scenes.

So, what does a poor writer do?

I can't emphasize enough that you need to hear your manuscript. It's amazingly eye-opening (or ear opening?). Words can look pretty on the page, but they could well be crap. 

By listening to my novel, I've found that I have a tendency to write short, abrupt sentences; not all the time, of course, but the times I do, they don't flow right to my ear.

When I first employed the Read Aloud feature in Word, I would constantly stop and make corrections, but at that pace I would never get through the whole thing. Yes, I will replace a word or lengthen an abrupt sentence, but big problems I find are noted in a separate document, so I can go back later and work on them. They're not instant fixes.

I've found odd mistakes, too. Since this novel is music-related, the main character has been in a few bands and/or is acquainted with a few bands. I managed to slip in a wrong band name from time to time, because they're hard to keep track of. I have a scene in which the bar owner is denigrating a particular band when talking to the MC, but he uses her band's name. How insulting! (No, that was an oops.)

I haven't even gotten to "hear" half of the story yet, but my notes so far are:

1. The bar scene is too long.

2. Need to resolve the MC's indecisiveness.

I know what I mean, so I keep my notes short and to the point. 

I still don't know how to pinpoint the boring parts, but I'm not spending over a thousand dollars for someone to tell me. I'll just need to go on instinct and hope for the best.

Still, I'd rather be in the editing phase than the writing phase. It's far more leisurely and relaxing.