Color Code Your Manuscript

A great editing technique on QueryTracker Blog:

First, I take an honest inventory of the areas of writing that aren't my strong suit. I make very sure to assign each of those a color. Then I look at what things I might go a little overboard on and add those to the list. Lastly, I add the things that are important structurally to the story.

Then I assign each item a color. So my list might look something like this:

Dialogue (You could even do separate colors for each main character if you wanted to.)
Description
Metaphors
Similes
Adjectives
Adverbs
To Be Verbs
Pacing
Characterization (Here, I would assign each major character and important side characters a color. If I'm running low on colors, I would assign a color and add bolding, italicizing, changing the font, or underlining.)
Inciting Incident
Clues that tie in together (I would be specific here. For example: All the clues that hint at the hero's destiny.)
World Building
Story Arcs (I'd assign each arc a different color. Again, if you're running out of colors, look at also bolding, italicizing, changing the font, or underlining to help differentiate the different things.)
Things Building Up to the Climax (I'd be specific here.)
Parts that Build/Release Tension (Might want to do a separate run through for this one.)
 Words I Overuse

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just some ideas to get you started...

Read the rest: QueryTracker Blog: Visual Editing: Color Coding Your Way to a Cleaner Manuscript