What I want to do here is look at the next step after draft completion, to remind people that it looms ahead not in some monstrous horror sort of way, but rather as a 'last rest stop before the road gets a little more intense'.
Let's take a look at the editing process, as it pertains to the Challenge.
The biggest edit would be plot- and character-based, putting whole sections or entire characters to the chopping block for the sacrifice of a more accessible story. This edit is not only the most severe, but may be the most involved, as the character or plot you choose to remove could weave itself throughout the entire story, making it's excision a delicate process.
Following that, and keeping in mind that the Challenge has a deadline, I would consider the next swath of edits to be focused on readability, the ease with which the eyes flow over the pages and process the imagery. Syntax comes to mind, as does formatting, pacing and structure. Mind those long blocks of dialogue and giant, unbroken walls of exposition...that sort of thing.
The third tier of edits are cosmetic, tweaking words and sentences at a nearly individual level to pick better synonyms or intensify the images and actions. Word replacement (I mean at a sentence level, not a global find-and-replace) is a critical and tricky art, where it means something when you swap "said" for "ejaculated" (yes, that's my favorite example). I may do an entire post on the dangers of word replacement...
There's no timeline, no magic date coming from some outside source as to when you, the writer, should be editing. It's based wholly on your timeline for writing. Nor should I think you should edit-as-you-write, since that will actually slow down your writing pace, as you attempt to
Just remember, the editing is coming, and it's going to take some time. But first, the writing, and you should be doing it.
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