Critique My Post-First Draft Novel Writing Process

Seems like a reasonable plan to me. The only thing I'd add is the old military saying, "No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy." Every edit I've ever done has involved major back-to-the-drawing board moments, till you can't really put a number on the draft, because Act I has been rewritten three times while Act III has only been rewritten once, etc...

But this seems like a pretty good starting point.

Good luck. I've always found it to be true that revision is the heart of writing. I planned on 3 drafts and then query, too. I'm finishing my fourth revision now, and in all honestly will probably end up doing a "final polish" fifth before I send it out.

I've always found revising to be like finishing wood. Each revision is like sanding with progressively finer sandpaper. Where the best-laid plans go awry (in my limited experience) is when I add new stuff during a revision. I always have a net loss of words during each revision, but sometimes I will add large new sections. If I add a new 1000 word section during revision 3, for example, that new section will lag the others in terms of "polish." It will still need 2 or 3 passes of revisions until the writing is as good as it can be made. This is how you end up with 5, or 6, or 7 revisions.

But I think the fact that you have a plan is great, and your plan itself is reasonable. Like the previous poster said, just be open to adapting and letting the work dictate what other work you need. Best of luck!

kaylim said:

1. Save the document and shelve it for a month. Start working on another project.

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I've never written anything longer than fifty pages so I can't say anything about novel writing. But I can confirm that an unexperienced writer like myself needs to put a few months between themselves and what they've written: When I had a second look I couldn't belief what trash I had churned out. Ditto for the third look. The fourth time around I was fairly satisfied and so were the friends of mine to who I showed it.

When I saw how bad the previous iteration was I did the following:

1) Highlight sentences and passages that I felt were problematical.
2) Ask myself why I felt this way.
3) Rewrite them until I saw an improvement; rewrite the rewrite until I saw more improvement, etc.
4) If I saw a structural problem I would write a few pages of analysis to help me pinpoint the problems and then I would spend time trying to find solutions on the Web.
5) If I became desperate I would try and find a story by a famous writer that had a similar POV and theme and then attempt to see how that author had avoided the dumb mistakes I had made.

kaylim said:

I'm nearing the end to the first draft of my novel. I've attempted to write a novel before but this is the first time that I've gotten this far and, with 50,000 words in so far, it seems like there's very little chance I will fail to finish the first draft.

Anyways this is what I'm going to do after I finish the 1st draft:

1. Save the document and shelve it for a month. Start working on another project.

2. Read through the first draft while making notes on what needs to be changed or expanded on and other stuff.

3. Make those changes until I have a 2nd draft

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3b. Wait a few more days, then go through the ms again, making notes as I go. Work through those notes making required changes. Repeat until I can find no more changes to make. (This could take several passes.)

4. Post the first chapter on AW SYW with an appeal for beta readers.

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I'd replace this with,

4. Meanwhile, spend a few weeks helping others on AW's SYW section. Write loads of crits. Then when revisions of own work are complete, post a section in SYW and listen to the critiquers. After it's all soaked in, perhaps post another section in SYW to see if various patterns are repeated throughout the ms. Then go back to point (1) and apply all that's been learned in SYW. Repeat as required. Then ask for beta readers.

5. After the beta comes back with changes and suggestions, I'll use my judgment and decide what to edit until I have a 3rd draft.

6. I will ask my former creative writing teacher if he would take a look at the 3rd draft. If he says yes, I'll repeat step 5 until I have a final draft.

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I wouldn't ask your former teacher for advice. Many teachers are not good at working out what's required for publication; and it's an imposition.

7. I will try to submit to an agent. If that fails I will try to submit to a publisher. If that fails, I will try to submit to independent publisher. If that fails, I will self-publish.

Any comments, suggestions etc.?

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Don't self publish because you can't get a trade deal. Self publish because it's what you want to do. If your work isn't right for trade publishing it's not likely to be right for self publishing either.

Hrm. Does that mean I shouldn't self pub if I'm niche? (as in I expect to be too niche to ever land an agent).

Seems like a good plan, OP. I can't add more than what others have said, except that it may perhaps take many more edits than you plan (but not always).

Please take all of the suggestions below with a hefty dose of "this is what works for me it may not work for you".

kaylim said:

1. Save the document and shelve it for a month. Start working on another project.

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I find doing this extremely helpful, but I would not do this without doing some editing first. I'd get it to where I was reasonably happy with it, then shelf it for a bit.

2. Read through the first draft while making notes on what needs to be changed or expanded on and other stuff.

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I've never been sure about making notes rather than just changing it there and then*. It seems to me like this is just duplication of effort. I edit on the screen to avoid this issue and if I don't know how to fix it there and then, I'll leave a [fix this bit] placeholder/reminder and pick it up on a future revision. And if I'm not sure if I want to change it or not, I'll change the text to red. If I still want to change it next time I re-read it, then I'll change it, or if on the next re-read I can't fathom why I ever changed it to red, I'll just change it back to black.

*that's not to say there's anything remotely wrong with doing this if it works for you... I'm just throwing it out there that there's an alternative

I appreciate that reading printed words on the page may pick up technical errors that you miss on the screen, but to me this is a final draft reread thing to pick up typos, rather than an earlier-in-the-editing-process thing for plot, voice, etc.

For anyone who's uncertain about this kind of editing in case they mess it up, you can save a version of it as a back-up before doing any major changes. I only do this before making any really radical changes (like one WIP which I changed from past to present tense) because 999 times out of 1000 the edits make it much better. The old past tense version only still exists because I can't be bothered to delete it. If I ever need to free up space on my hard drive, it's going.

3. Make those changes until I have a 2nd draft

4. Post the first chapter on AW SYW with an appeal for beta readers.

5. After the beta comes back with changes and suggestions, I'll use my judgment and decide what to edit until I have a 3rd draft.

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For me, I don't work in 2nd and 3rd draft etc. I just keep editing it until I like it. Post some for revision, get feedback, decide if I want to make changes based on feedback, rinse and repeat until I like it enough that I would consider trying to get it published.

Well, to be honest, it's the same process but you seem to have mentally organised it into a number of drafts. Which is great if that's what works for you. It would confuse me and due to the way I write, the first scene may have been edited 20 or 30 times while the last scene's only just been written and edited maybe once. So none of it is linear. (I edit as I go, on a scene by scene basis.)

6. I will ask my former creative writing teacher if he would take a look at the 3rd draft. If he says yes, I'll repeat step 5 until I have a final draft.

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That's great that you have someone like this who can look over your work like that.

7. I will try to submit to an agent. If that fails I will try to submit to a publisher. If that fails, I will try to submit to independent publisher. If that fails, I will self-publish.

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Can't really comment on this, apart from that lots of publishers won't take manuscripts that don't come from agents (that may be just in the UK market). Sounds like you have a plan though, which is good.

Again, none of the above is "the one true way" - it's what works for me. Mostly for the sake of alternative ways being out there (and hopefully other comments will provide more alternative ways) because I don't know whether the OP's written from a point of view of "I know this is what works for me because I've done it before" or "this is what other writers/writing books say is the right way to do it".

ETA: I definitely agree with Old Hack's suggestion of critiqing others - I have learned so much by doing this.

Harlequin said:

Hrm. Does that mean I shouldn't self pub if I'm niche? (as in I expect to be too niche to ever land an agent).

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It depends on what your goals are. If you want to be trade published then pursue that end. Self publishing is not a consolation prize for those of us who fail at trade publication: it's a lot of work, and needs to be something you really want to do if you want to do well at it. If you treat it as something to do if agents don't like your work you're not only likely to fail at it, you're also being somewhat disrespectful of all the authors who self publish great books.

neandermagnon said:

I've never been sure about making notes rather than just changing it there and then*. It seems to me like this is just duplication of effort. I edit on the screen to avoid this issue and if I don't know how to fix it there and then, I'll leave a [fix this bit] placeholder/reminder and pick it up on a future revision. And if I'm not sure if I want to change it or not, I'll change the text to red. If I still want to change it next time I re-read it, then I'll change it, or if on the next re-read I can't fathom why I ever changed it to red, I'll just change it back to black.

*that's not to say there's anything remotely wrong with doing this if it works for you... I'm just throwing it out there that there's an alternative

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I make copious notes before I change anything because by doing so I often reveal a pattern of issues which can be best fixed by something which isn't obvious at the start. So while your method works well for you, you might find yourself making changes which aren't required, or which actually make things worse.

For me, I don't work in 2nd and 3rd draft etc. I just keep editing it until I like it. Post some for revision, get feedback, decide if I want to make changes based on feedback, rinse and repeat until I like it enough that I would consider trying to get it published.

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Same here.

Can't really comment on this, apart from that lots of publishers won't take manuscripts that don't come from agents (that may be just in the UK market). Sounds like you have a plan though, which is good.

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That's true of the bigger publishers in both America and the UK. But there are plenty of independent publishers which aren't so concerned about working with agents.

Always great to have a plan! I'll add that if this is your first novel, consider it as just that: your first novel. It is very rare for individuals to get their first novels published. We often need to go through quite a few projects before our true talent is polished enough to get the recognition it deserves. But it can certainly happen! Save pursuing publishing until you've gone through lots of edits. Often by the time you've worked on a million drafts of a project, you're ready to move on to new things and experiment with other styles.

well, that's why I mentioned the niche aspect. I have no desire to slate self pubbers

something may appeal to a small readership without being broad enough for an agent. (Mary C Moore had something like that.) I also have one friend who traditionally publishes more commerical things but self pubs his true interest (nonfiction history) because, again, niche.

I know from experience that I forgot one important factor when I made out my writing plan..."life gets in the way". Keep your head up and be prepared, for anything.

It sounds like a decent plan, but I think you're skipping out on a huge portion of the Post-First-Draft Process, which is ... rewriting. (Unless your Step 3, in which you "make changes until you have a second draft" means that...)

Most published authors and great writers will end up rewriting their first draft. Marissa Meyer, who wrote the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, has a great blog post about rewriting (and also about the entire writing process, which she sums up in 9 Steps From Idea To Finished). She says she typically salvages only about 10%-30% of her first drafts.

Rewriting is incredibly important and necessary to the novel process. If you read your current draft and you flag changes and just edit the sentences or change a few words, it'll always have that "okay, good enough" feel to it. But if you sit down in front of a new, blank page knowing what you need to happen and knowing what you want to change ... that produces an entirely different new product. And it's better.

I've rewritten my current novel about three times; I've been working on it for about 2.5 years. And I am so glad that I chose to rewrite it. All those times, during all those rewrites, I learned different things about my characters -- about who they are, what they want, who they want to become -- and about the world, and about the plot itself. My novel is many times stronger now.

Good luck!

I'm still hacking and slashing away on my fourth draft... going to send it to a beta reader soon and then, no doubt, there will be more hacks and slashes.

one step at a time.