How do I make the steaming pile of first draft I created during NaNoWriMo into something people will love as much as I loved the initial idea?
Everyone has their method. Here’s mine….
First Pass:
Load manuscript onto kindle, sit down and read straight through, only stopping to comment as a reader.
What do I need?
- Calibre to convert to .mobi
- Time for a dedicated read-through
- Notepad and pen for old school note taking
- Willpower to not fix typos or wordsmith
What am I looking for?
- Inconsistencies, plot gaps, things that make no sense.
- Goal-motivation-conflict of characters: is it in the story? Is what the hero/heroine want clear before the first major plot point?
Revise…… then:
Second Pass:
Change layout to two column format using Times New Roman. Reduce line spacing to 1.5 or single space. Bind along top.
What do I need?
- My local Quick Copy shop. (I could do it with my cranky old ink jet, but why torture it and myself?)
- Highlighters, sticky notes. Sometimes a blue pencil if I’m feeling feisty.
- Distance from work & patience with myself.
What am I looking for?
- Motivation of characters.
- Character journey/change through the story. Did the hero/heroine change by the end? How? Why?
- Review secondary characters: any who could be eliminated or merged with others? (Beware the cast of thousands)
- Find and follow the story threads—make sure all threads flow through and wrap up. Don’t drop a thread half way and leave it hanging.
Revise…… then:
Third Pass:
- Get a writer friend to read and comment. Usually a “high level” or “first pass” read – checking for continuity, plot holes, parts that make no sense, parts that make them want to close the book.
- Read all comments. Think through them and determine how they could make story stronger. Change as appropriate.
Revise….. then:
Fourth Pass:
- Get a writer friend (a different one at this point is a plus) to do a read for the story’s flow/emotion/language. Think of it as a voice check. Very important when you are learning, as sentence structure and flow aren’t natural skills for all writers.
- Read all comments. Think through them and determine how they could make story stronger. Change as appropriate.
Revise….. then:
Fifth Pass:
- Go through the story and really look for missing punctuation, wrong words, homonyms.
- Make sure all formatting is clean.
- Accept all changes (if tracking changes) and create clean copy without any old versions of track changes hanging around (check Word help for how to do this)
Fix myself a drink and call it a job well done.
Next up: the hard part. Submission
I’ve usually had several drinks by that point. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your process and I think you nailed the title of this blog post.
I know as writers get more experienced they often do more than one of these steps together. A good goal for all of us!
Great post! I am going to try Calibre. 🙂
It can be a very useful tool. Check out some of the simple video/web tutorials if you need help getting up & running. I love it for putting my drafts on Kindle!