So you’ve finished NaNoWrimo and you have a sparkly new 50,000 word manuscript in your hot little hands. Congratulations! Now what?
Perhaps after you finished NaNoWriMo, as you stare at the glorious word count you’ve been slaving over for a month, you think that you ought to start sending your pride and joy to as many agents as you can find who might be interested in your book.
Hold on–not so fast. The last thing you want to do is send out a rough draft, and that’s exactly what you have. You’ve just spent a month pouring your heart out onto the page/computer, but in order to meet that 50,000 word goal, you probably didn’t do any editing at all.
That’s ok! I like to think of writing as very similar to pottery. You start out with an empty potter’s wheel (blank sheet of paper) and you need some clay. Your rough draft is your clay. When a potter first puts that lump of clay on the wheel, it is just a blob, with only the vaguest hint that one day it will be a pot.
This is an important step! If you have no clay, you can’t move on to making anything.
The next steps will take your manuscript from lump of clay to beautiful novel.
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Pat Yourself on the Back!
You finished NaNoWriMo! Tons of people dream about writing a book, but hardly any of them do it. I’ve talked to so many people who have an idea for a book but don’t have the time or the patience required to write it down. But you did! Congratulations!
Keep Writing
Getting your story written down is an accomplishment, but in my opinion, it’s not the most valuable thing you can get out of NaNoWriMo. I strongly believe that the habit of writing daily during NaNoWriMo is far more important because it is the start of a lifestyle if you want it. If you want to be a writer, keep writing. It doesn’t have to be 1,667 words per day, but keep writing.
Take a Break from Your Story
In his book, On Writing, Stephen King recommends stuffing your manuscript in a drawer for six weeks or until you’ve gotten some emotional distance from it and writing something else. I’ve found that the more intensive my writing schedule, the more I desperately need this break. I get so caught up in the weeds that I get overwhelmed. Stepping back for a month or two allows me to give my brain something else to think about so that when I return, I can see it with fresh eyes. Huge problems shrink in significance, I see gaping plot holes better, and I’m better able to see the bones of the story.
Read Through Your Story and Take Notes
Once you’ve taken a break, find the holes, find the things that don’t work. I use a program called Asana to make a list of story-related problems, editing issues, and publication things to do. I can then check off each item as I complete it. It also has the option to give yourself deadlines.
Work Your Way Through Your List until It’s Done
This isn’t editing. This is turning your rough draft into a second draft.
Now Edit!
My preferred method of editing at this stage is printing off the entire manuscript (I highly recommend a laser printer instead of an inkjet because it can spit out hundreds of pages quickly and cheaply–I have this one). Then I separate out each chapter with a paperclip and get out my red pen. My manuscript bleeds after I’m done with it. It’s oddly satisfying to see all that red. I guess it makes me feel like I’m doing lots of things, most of which will hopefully be improvements.
Give Your Manuscript to an Editor or Copyeditor
I don’t have the luxury of doing this at this point in my career. If you can afford it, though, an editor can help you make sure that the words on the page reflect the ideas and story that you want to tell.
Give Your Manuscript to Beta Readers
Don’t give it to your friends or family if you want an honest read. They love you too much to tell the truth, but the truth is what you need to get better. You really need to find some thick armor for this step: you have to be comfortable with separating the manuscript from yourself or else you’re going to be emotionally shredded. If you’re a mess, you can’t learn. If you don’t learn, the manuscript doesn’t get better. A note: don’t take beta readers’ opinions as gospel. It’s your story, not theirs. Another note: having multiple beta readers will help you see what is working and what is not. If all of them say your magic system doesn’t make sense, then it’s time to figure out how to explain it better. If one of them doesn’t like your protagonist because they’ve always hated mean girls, but the other readers love how she grows as a character, don’t worry about it as much. Use your beta readers to double-check to make sure your story works.
Spellcheck and Grammar
You can have a proofreader do this or use a program like ProWritingAid or Grammarly. I recommend a healthy dose of caution when using these programs as they are often wrong. I use them to flag possible spelling or grammar problems and then look it up in a dictionary or grammar book. No matter how cool AIs are these days, the human brain is still better at detect nuances, dialectical differences, and exceptions better than a computer. I do use ProWritingAid for the other reports, though. It can flag when I’ve started a sentence the same way three or more times in a row, show me when I use the same or similar words really close together, or catch the embarrassingly high number of adverbs I use. I would love to use a human proofreader for this step, but alas, I’m not there yet either.
Once you’ve done all that, NOW you can start thinking about publication.
Conclusion
Continuing your journey towards publication after NaNoWriMo takes a lot more effort than you might think. You have to prepare your manuscript to give it the best chance possible of catching a reader’s eye. It might be a lot of work, but it’s worth it! Good luck!
If you feel like you’re losing momentum, check out my tips on how to stay motivated while writing a novel.
