Maybe you participated in National Novel Writing Month this November, or maybe you’ve finally finished your novel on your own timeline. Either way, you’ve completed the first draft of your novel–now where do you go from here?
Read on to find out!
Take a break
If you’ve been working on your novel for a particularly long time, it could be helpful to take a break from your work. Not only will this be good for your mental health, but taking a break can give you some new perspective on your story. Let it sit for a bit–a few weeks, or maybe a few months–and then come back to it.
Make a checklist
When you’re ready to start reviewing your novel, a good place to start is making a checklist of things you want to look for when you’re editing. Aside from any spelling and grammar errors, you might want to look for inconsistencies in your story, underdeveloped characters, or boring plot lines. At this point, you don’t need to fix every error you find, but making a checklist can help you be aware of what to look for, so you can make notes. Speaking of which…
Make some notes
Your first pass through of your novel after you finish it doesn’t have to address every mistake, but you should be making notes of things to come back to and fix. Maybe you spot something that a character says that needs to be rewritten–write down what you’d like to say instead, and make it a comment on your Google Doc or add a Post-It on your physical manuscript. These notes will make it easier to locate the things that you need to come back to later on.
Get a second (and third and fourth) opinion
At some point in your editing process, you’ll need to get some additional opinions on your work. You may want to wait until after you complete at least one pass through of your novel, so you can fix any basic mistakes and make editing easier on your editors.
Your editors can be anyone from close friends and family to colleagues to professional editors (like us!). Consider picking editors who may have a background in writing, or who are avid readers–they might be able to give you more helpful feedback.
Do you have any editing tips of your own for novelists? Share them with us in the comments!
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