[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started; Part 2, Other Ways of Writing a Book; Part 3, WRITE THAT THING. How I wrote my first book by just starting to write; how to plan a book step by step; and how to actually write that book.
Part 4: What next? – Editing the Book
So you’ve gone and finished that book you’ve always been dreaming of. Wow! Hurrah! Congratulations! That is so awesome!
I mean all of what I just said. Having written a novel is a huge achievement, and you should be very proud of yourself. I am! (Proud of you, I mean. Although I’m also proud of myself for having done it, but that’s another point.) So, if nothing else, take some time to celebrate and pat yourself on the back (or on the shoulder, if, like me, you find that easier to reach).
However. (You knew there was a “However” coming, didn’t you?) What you’ve just written, while it is, in fact, a novel, is actually not entirely qualified to be inflicted on the public yet. (And not only because the public are Philistines and wouldn’t appreciate your genius.) What you have in your hands right now is a first draft.
As I said before, if all you wanted is to write that novel for the satisfaction of having written it, feel free to put it in your desk drawer or keep it in a lovely folder on your hard drive, where you can take it out once a year and gloat over it. That’s perfectly all right, and if that’s what you want to do, go for it. But if you would like to take it further, read on.
Wait, let me back up a bit: even if you do want to take your book further, stick it in your desk drawer. For a little while, at least—say, a month or two, if not longer.
You know how I said that when you’re in the thick of writing, you can’t trust your judgement as to the quality of your work? Putting the manuscript aside for a while helps to let the murk of your stirred-up imagination settle out a bit, and you gain some distance from your story. Then, when you come back to it, you can see it with a fresh eye.
So, after a month or four, take your novel back out of the drawer (or computer folder) and re-read it. One of the ways I like to do that is to convert the manuscript to an epub and put it on my ereader. I know writers who print out their story on paper to read it. The point of changing the format like this is to help your brain look at what you’ve written in a different way. You might even be able to make-believe that you’re looking at someone else’s writing, and decide if you like what they wrote.
For this process, let your inner editor back out of its cage; now it can come out to play and be as critical as it likes. You might want to run your manuscript through a spellchecker first, so the inner editor can’t be quite as mean as it would be otherwise. Let it do its job, just don’t let it bully you. Make sure to take note of everything that’s good about your novel—and I’m sure there will be plenty. But between you and your inner editor, you will probably find all kinds of mistakes and weird passages that you know you need to fix up.
So then you sit down and fix ‘em. And that is your second draft. If you’ve written your first draft with pen and paper, the second draft can be the point where you type that writing into the computer. You might find in your re-read that there are whole passages that need changing, or chapters that need rearranging, or scenes that need cutting. Change ‘em. Rearrange ‘em. Cut ‘em.
During this whole process, make sure you back up your stuff—save copies of what you’ve done. Each time you have a major version change, save it with a different file name, so you have backups of the various iterations.
Somewhere in there, after your second or third or fourth draft, you might be ready to show your writing to someone else. Find some beta readers (first readers)—trusted people who can read your story and give you an honest opinion on it. You’ll want someone who doesn’t just pat you on the back (if they can reach it), although that’s great too, but who will point out places where the story can be improved, without tearing it (and you) to pieces.
When you get feedback from your beta readers, you go back to your manuscript, and you implement the changes that have been suggested—or not. That’s the thing: you don’t have to accept people’s opinions on your story. It’s your story, you make the final decisions. Sometimes other people just don’t get what you’re trying to do, and it’s perfectly okay to say “Thanks, but no thanks!” to someone’s comment.
I’ve found, as a rule, that if one person comments on something needing to change, you acknowledge it and move on. If two people comment on the same issue, you sit up and take notice. If it’s three, it’s got to go. And I count myself as one of those people: not infrequently, I find places in my manuscript where I wonder if I need to change something, and then a beta reader comments on that very thing—so that’s two! It’s encouraging when that happens, because it means my own instincts about my writing are good, and I’ll change things accordingly.
So, now you’ve edited your novel again, incorporating the feedback from your beta readers and anything that you’ve seen yourself needs changing. That’s your third draft. Or maybe the fourth or fifth. You get the idea: edit, rinse, repeat.
Finally you’re satisfied that the novel is as good as you can possibly make it. Now you have a number of options, about which I’ll tell you when this is…
…TO BE CONTINUED…