Congratulations! You completed writing the first draft of your novel. After you calm down from celebrating, you will realize that a new maze of challenges has arisen—the editing process. This is the section that many times spells doom. Some writers delete their entire work because they face the dreaded act of revising. Many writers abandon it and begin writing an all-new novel. Don’t be like them.
I will help you not to fall into that hopeless pit. As someone who can empathize with your revision process, I will list my suggestions here so you won’t make the same mistakes I had when I began my editing. If you follow these steps—in this order—you will create a great novel.
The Big 4
Allow the First Draft to Chill
Letting the novel simply sit idle while you envision yourself winning literary awards and cashing that huge advance from the New York publishing company seems counterproductive. Believe me, it isn’t.
Divorcing yourself from your novel for a short time does WONDERS for your creativity. Instead of primarily focusing on the improvement of your story on a daily basis, letting it go frees you from the focus. It actually benefits you to give it a few days or a few weeks before revising it. Removing the editing process provides a more clear mind when returning.
After a few weeks, when you open the document again, I absolutely guarantee you will notice problems with your novel’s structure, character development, and many other things that you happened to miss before.
This is a good thing.
Rather than experiencing pessimism over the process, look at it as a way to improve what you have written. I mean, do you really think your 100,000 word story was perfect the first time? Of course, there will be improvements made and possibly even chapters deleted. It will be a massive process. I agree. But, becoming discouraged over the editing process will only slow you down or defeated so badly it might deter you from writing ever again.
The Peer Review Scenario
After you allowed your first draft to sit for a week or two, revise it lightly. Don’t make any grand changes yet. You are better off taking notes and underlining passages or areas of improvement. Once you have done that, have another person (not a family member!) review it for you. Family and friends are automatically in a different relationship with you to give any professional writing tips. Don’t mix personal and business together. Always go outside of your personal circle to get writing tips.
By having a fellow writer or an editor could add many benefits to your novel. They have the experience to judge your work professionally and to give you the best feedback. However, this process should be with someone you respect, like, and trust.
If you happen to choose a peer reviewer who doesn’t know the best ways to critique a draft, then I suggest you bail out quickly. Find another one that works well with you.
Despite possible drawbacks from peer reviewers, they produce more good than bad. Even if you don’t take their advice, they spark your mind. Maybe you never thought of revising a certain passage–and you still won’t. BUT, because they mentioned it to you, you will find something wrong with the previous or following passages. Always having another person in the creative writing field look at your first draft is critical to the success of your novel.
Structure, Plot, and Character
This part is the most important.
After you let the manuscript sit, after you got the peer review back, you—yourself—are faced with the real revision of your draft. This is where a major investigation into plot, structure, and especially character are involved.
- Begin with character first: Does the main character complete his or her arc? Is it a satisfying arc? Is the main character (MC) fleshed out enough? Is the MC compelling? Is the MC (dis) likable? Are other characters written well or are they cardboard?
- Next review plot: Does the MC’s arc mesh well with the plot? If the MC were taken out the story, would the plot still work? If yes, then something must change.
- Lastly, check structure: Are the chapters in a good order to tell the story? Is a linear structure the best way to tell your story? Can sentences rearrange within each paragraph so it flows smoother? …(This is a big one that an editor might notice.)
This is the most time-consuming and most important step of the revision process. I advise writers to spend as much time as necessary to fix these problems.
And after you think you have repaired any issues, I want you to perform steps 1, 2, and 3 all over again before moving on to step 4.
Don’t Sweat Grammar Until Last
I know you would expect grammar to come first, but let it slide until the end. It is easily fixable.
Nail the other issues before even thinking of tackling spelling or syntax or split infinitives, etc. If you do this before any others, you will have to correct the grammar again at the end anyway. It will be a repetition. And that is not good when you are trying to finish your draft.
Now, You’re Done
Even after you have completed this revision process, I think you should do it again. I realize it sounds tedious, but you want your literary agent to have your best work. If you have any questions about finding any writing services, you can check out this. If you want to ditch hiring a peer reviewer and want to revise it yourself, Amazon has an excellent book I still use to revise my drafts.
Comment below and let me know how you revise your first drafts.
~M