So I am in the middle of the 2nd draft of the novel that I have been thinking about and writing for well over 3 years. (had more than a year off from it in between). This book has been with me since the pandemic. I had many reasons for not making progress - but now I have none. I have plenty of time on my hands and I am not suffering from writer's block. I know what happens in the story, I have the beginning, middle and end all written out in 1st draft. Now mainly ironing out the details in the 2nd draft. There are a few issues (things-to-do list) that I am listing separately that I will need to address. I am looking to do another draft of thorough editing (adding a bit more emotional touch to the story) after which I would comfortably give the book to a 3rd party to read. Overall, I feel if I put my mind and heart into it, and spend 10+ hours a day (which I can) I can finish it. I would like to hear some practical tips and advices from fellow writers. I know the obvious ones like avoiding the distractions from social media, not committing too many outings/events, setting a deadline, achieving x hours of work a day etc. But is there any advice that would internally keep me motivated and encouraged to hit the deadline.. would love to hear it...
I have done some editing of my work and wanted to tell you what worked for me. I think the first thing to do is focus on the typos. Second, I like that you make a list. I do that, too. Then, write all the edits on one big list and do the small ones first. The ones that don't alter the whole story or anything. Next, I would look at the phrasing of each line. Read through it. Fix any clunky writing. Then, let the story rest for a month. Then, read it again. Also have a program that can read it aloud to you. My eyes miss typos and I am sure many other people experience the same thing. So, listen to the story and fix anything that sounds off when it's spoken. Then, read it over a another time and if you're happy, it's good.
Thank you, I liked the advice of starting from the easy fix first. I am hoping to complete the 2nd draft asap. Leaving a month seems a bit too long, but I will try at least 2 weeks. I have to start finding people who can read the manuscript and give honest opinion... Thanks so much for your reply.
In a second draft, I run it through ProWritingAid and I don't spend much time with it. I would say put the editing in the back of your mind and write on. When I do edit, I check the plot, fix obvious grammar errors, and replace vague words such as "it" with more specific terms. In the end, I have my stuff professionally edited and have had comments on reviews of how clean it is.
In my 2nd draft, I had so many 'after thought' scenes added. So it is basically re-writing on top of fixing the grammatical/spelling errors. Thank you for the ProWritingAid tip - I use ChatGPT for fixing errors now.
You're welcome. I am kinda blown away by the idea of editing a book in 30 days. I know it can be done, but does that really give you time to explore the possibilities? I have stories at draft #8 and it's just beginning to come together. Or at least I feel I know the characters and world far better than I did at draft #2.
To be honest, I have been mulling over the story for years now I feel I am always drafting them in my head. Also, It's been too long now, the passion I had for the story is slowly starting to fade. So I want to give enough time and attention the story deserves, get it in a good shape so it can be read by a small set of readers who could give me honest feedback. I'm afraid if I keep playing with it, the story might not see the light of the day.
First: spellcheck and grammar check. Then my editing process is to search and destroy adverbs like really, very, and a few others unless they are in dialog. I use Word's text-to-speech feature and go through the entire book, correcting things that don't sound right, or missing words like "the" and typos that spellcheck can't reveal like homonyms. I'm also checking story continuity as I go. I use location/date-time stamps for each chapter, so I check that they're correct and in sequence. I can do about 12 -1 5 pages an hour on a book that is 165 Word pages (single space - I can't stand double-space). Total time per edit is about 14 hours. By the way this is on screen not paper. I do a total of 6 edits and stop. By the 4th one, I'm looking for better wording and by the the 6th checking for any errors, especially newly introduced ones, but not new wording unless it's critical. All of this is done with text-to-speech. After edit 6, I spellcheck and grammar once more. All told it takes me about 29 or 30 days to complete the edits. If you have First Readers, be sure they get a copy after edit 2. I have several and they each bring different skills. One is an oustanding editor and fact-checker and has saved me from myself numerous times. They all get mentioned in the acknowledgements (20 books so far).
