Congratulations! You’ve written your first novel.
Now what?
Take some time, breathe. Let your story sit for a week or two while you fill your creative well before tackling the next step of the writing process. Distancing yourself from the story you’ve been writing for the past few months or years is necessary in order to approach your manuscript with a fresh perspective. Resist the urge to jump into the editing stage too soon (your future self will be thankful you did).
When you’ve allowed a sufficient period of time to pass, what then?
Here are some tips that have worked for me.
Tip 1: Read through the manuscript
I like to read through my manuscript on my e-reader first, highlighting or noting items to change. Moving your text from a computer screen to paper or e-ink makes a difference in how your brain processes the story (here’s a great article based on science! BRAIN FACTS ).
Tip 2: Work on the big picture first
As tempting as it is to fix grammatical errors as you go, resist the urge. You can address these errors using programs like ProWriting Aid or Grammarly (or your tool of choice) when you’ve addressed the big picture issues. Analyze your overall story structure – does your story make sense? Are there plot holes or threads you’ve left unresolved? Is there a story question you’ve addressed along the way?
For some story structure resources, check out: The Story Equation; Story Trumps Structure; Save the Cat Writes a Novel; The Story Grid
Tip 3: Work on character development
Stories that receive the dreaded reader feedback, “I didn’t connect with the characters”, or “they felt plastic” is a character development issue. Have you taken time to get to know your character? What is their end goal? What drives them to reach that goal? What are they afraid of? What life experiences do they have that will affect how they respond to situations throughout the story? Know your character better than you know which flavor of ice cream you prefer. Once you know all of these things about your character, you will know what kind of situations to throw at them and how they should react.
Tip 4: Work on layers
This is where the magic happens. How do you keep your readers engaged in your story? Conflict. Tension. Foreshadowing. Emotional layers. Deep point of view. Chapter ending hooks. Do you have all of these things in every scene?
Tip 5: Fix grammar
This second to last step should be relatively easy to fix as there are many tools available to authors. ProWriting Aid, Grammarly, and AutoCrit are relatively inexpensive paid options. Users can feed a scene at a time or the entire novel into the program and errors are highlighted. The program shows a variety of grammatical errors such as verb tense, as well as stylistic issues such as passive voice and repetitions.
Tip 6: Reread the corrected copy
Once you’re satisfied with the edits you’ve done, reread the entire manuscript noting new errors created in the editing process. Then, cycle through tips 2 through 5 as many times as needed (some authors conduct two complete passes whereas others will do as many as five).
Bonus Tip: Enter contests
I highly recommend entering your polished manuscript into contests accepting unpublished manuscripts. The goal of entering shouldn’t be to win (however, that is an awesome reward if it happens), but to receive constructive, professional feedback. Take the criticism to heart and work through the suggested changes. The judges in contests are industry professionals and know story well.
Once you have a polished manuscript, go forth and query! Or, if you’re on the self-publishing path, search for a professional editor to work with before launching your story into the world.
What self-editing tips have worked for you?