How long do you let a novel rest before you continue

showtimecircus · Feb 19, 2009

When you finish a first draft how long do you let it rest before you go into a second draft. I can only last a couple of days before i miss my WIP and have to go into a second draft. I always aim for two weeks though. Ahh well, that's life. So tell me how long do you wait. Stephen King waits seven months! What about you?

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Aggy B. · Feb 19, 2009

I started over again right away. But I'm working much slower on the second draft. First draft was about 2000 words a day. Now I'm doing well to hit 500 in a day.

The decision not to wait was due, in part, to realizing by the time I'd reached the end that there were some major holes that needed to be reworked. Even with notes I know I would have forgotten what I needed to do if I waited very long before getting back to work.

Probably not the best method, but this time it seems to be working okay.

Enzo · Feb 19, 2009

With the previous one, I waited two months. I took distance from it, but there was a point where I thought, if I don't go back now and do a second draft, I might not get back there at all because I would be too focused on the next book.

maestrowork · Feb 19, 2009

It depends on how ready and objective you are. I let mine sit for over a month before I started rewriting/editing.

Elidibus · Feb 19, 2009

It's gonna sound weird, but I usually let a MS sit for "however long it needs to."

It's weird. I just stop working on it and work on another story until I wake up one day or, more frequently, I'm driving and something flashes in my head that says "It's time..."

Then I put the second story on hold and go back to editing. I think the last time this happened, it was around three weeks.

Subsequent edits happen a little faster. Maybe a week or two.

Feathers · Feb 19, 2009

I recently finished a novel that feels like it's been a long, drawn out relationship that still needs a whole bunch of work. So this time I'm staying away for a minimum of three months. Normally, when I plan to take a break, I think I wait maybe a month or two.

But I miss writing. I find that working on another project during the break is so much easier and works a lot better. It really clears my head, and helps me come back to the world of my previous novel with new eyes. So I don't generally say to myself, "I'll wait two weeks" or "I'll wait one month." I usually start a new project, then switch back and forth between new projects and old. One effect of that is I always have, like, fifteen projects in different stages of being written/edited.

But anywho, I'm rambling. Showtime, I can empathize with you needing to write, and I can also empathize with you jumping right back into your work. I do that for a couple of early drafts. But once you get through with those, I would REALLY suggest taking a break and working on something else... nothing else can give you the perspective that time away will.

-Feathers

Judg · Feb 19, 2009

My first draft took so long to write, the first chapters were already fresh to my eyes again. Pathetic, I know.

Michael Parks · Feb 19, 2009

King advised six weeks in "On Writing", I believe. I plan on 4-6 weeks.

Judg, that's how I am with my wip.

timewaster · Feb 20, 2009

showtimecircus said:
When you finish a first draft how long do you let it rest before you go into a second draft. I can only last a couple of days before i miss my WIP and have to go into a second draft. I always aim for two weeks though. Ahh well, that's life. So tell me how long do you wait. Stephen King waits seven months! What about you?

I usually do a quick clean up of the first draft immediately and sent it off to my agent. However I have one book that isn't sold, which needs a rewrite that I've left fallow for a year or more. This is partly because I cna't face it and partly because I can't decide what to turn it into. i have promised myself to fix it after I finish my current WIP.

Goodchild · Feb 20, 2009

I spent an entire year gradually rewriting and editing the ms I'm shopping around at the mo, with maybe a month off at some point

I'm always careful not to get too close to the work, though, if you know what I mean, otherwise I could still be fiddling with the damn thing even now

tehuti88 · Feb 20, 2009

I try to get a story the best I can the first time around so I don't have to do drafts. BUT, I'm always learning, so even a story that's the best I can make it right now can be improved somewhere further down the line. It usually takes at least three or four years before my writing skills have evolved such that I look back on a story and see that it could use some work.

However, I seem to have hit my stride (or however you put it) around 2003 or so, because I look back on stuff I wrote then and aside from plot details it seems fine to me. *shrug*

So in terms of rewriting/revising something, I have to wait at least a few years if I'm going to do it.

KikiteNeko · Feb 20, 2009

I don't. What's rest? Is it a kind of pie?

Feidb · Feb 20, 2009

For me it has historically varied. One time I started the edit right away. For the next one, I put it down for a few months. On another one, I put it down for over a year.

I think it best to put it to bed for at least a month or two, then go back with more refreshed eyes.

I've found that my most productive rests have been when I put the MS to bed and start on something else. Then, when I finish that next project, I go back to the first one and read it with a fresh perspective.

There is no one method that works for everyone.

Kaibafangirl77 · Feb 20, 2009

I wasn't able to let mine rest. I know it's a good strategy, and I wanted to try it, but being away from my WIP while I knew there was editing to do drove me crazy! The most I've let it rest is one week, and that was not on my own free will! I guess it just depends on the writer.

seun · Feb 20, 2009

I give mine 4-6 weeks. Any less than that and I'm still too close to the book. 4-6 weeks means I can see it as if it's new.

MsGneiss · Feb 20, 2009

I've only ever completed one novel, but I didn't stop at all - I kept editing until my agent said it's good enough for submission (which was just a few days ago). And, I still expect that she'll ask me to do some document formatting changes over the weekend. I can't imagine taking 7 months off. I'd keep going until the book is sold, or until the project is abandoned.

KikiteNeko · Feb 20, 2009

In all seriousness, though, I try to make the MS as perfect as I can on the first go. I reread pages as I write them, so by the time I'm done, I'm confident it won't need a total revamping. Then I go over it and nitpick some minor edits. Then I send it to my agent for her take, but usually she doesn't want to change anything until we've heard back from an editor or two. I will pretty much do anything an editor says if they'll buy the MS. I'll add a purple dinosaur named Steve.

But ideally I revise it while it's still fresh on the brain, rather than taking a break.

vrabinec · Feb 20, 2009

I have to let it sit long enough for the words I wrote to sound like someone else wrote them. If it's too fresh, then I figure I'll make the same mistakes the second time around that I made on the first pass. Giving it a good month at least, allows me to look at it as though I'm critiquing someone else's work.

Horseshoes · Feb 20, 2009

I'm in the "however long it needs +/- however long I have" as there are always other writing projects and Life. But then I rewrite as I write...

Charlie Horse · Feb 20, 2009

A long time. "Made in Vermont" sat for quite awhile while people read it. During that time I completed the first draft for "Matthew Newman" (about 8 months) and probably wrote a few short stories as well. Now "Matthew" is waiting patiently while I perfect "Made in Vermont" and plug away at another first draft (Paramount). By the time "Made..." is ready to submit, I'll be all over "Matthew" like a flies on a rotten piece of fruit.

The thing is, I've always got one new project to work on and one to revise. I imagine by the time I get back to "Matthew" it'll be like reading the book for the first time.

ishtar'sgate · Feb 20, 2009

Everyone has to do what works for them. I need to let mine sit for at least 3 months so that I can come back to it as a reader. A bit of distance lets me dig into rewrites refreshed and excited.

DonnaDuck · Feb 20, 2009

I like having distance when I go back to edit but the time I've left between finishing a draft and then editing it has been circumstantial. I finished draft 1 at the end of September and vowed to take October off from the "serious" writing. Then I wrote another novel for Nano and finished that one in December. I picked the first manuscript back up at the beginning of January to start editing and I'll pick the second manuscript up when I'm letting the second rewrite site. So I'm averaging about three months chill time between finishing the draft and editing. I'd like to short that but right now that's how it's working out.

KTC · Feb 20, 2009

"How long do you let a novel rest before you continue?"

Depends on how much I hate it. The past 2 years I had to edit like crazy to get 2 novels ready for instant submission. I hated them and I hated the process. When I finish the one I'm working on now, I think I'll toss it for a year before glancing at it.

Diamond Lil · Feb 20, 2009

Depends on your style and whether you're on a deadline.

Currently I write as a hobby, so I don't have the deadline issue. And I need the distance and objectivity so I wait 6 weeks at the very least. I finished a draft in January but busy as all heck with work so I won't look at my draft until at least May, maybe June. Which works for me because I need to see it with totally fresh eyes.

Aschenbach · Feb 20, 2009

3 or 4 months. In that time I concentrate on shorts, which I like as well as writing novels. I write new ones and keep tinkering with earlier ones as and when they get rejected, and keep the sub merry-go-round on the spin.

When I come back to the novel, after that sort of brain wipe, it is like I am critting another person's work. I see it for what it is, not what I thought it was.

How long do you let a novel rest before you continue

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