Welcome back if you thought I forgot about you, I didn’t. I took several weeks to finish the end of my latest novel. Finishing the first draft feels like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but now the real challenge begins. I have written about rewriting a book before but I want to give you a play by play as I am currently working on a second draft. I am looking at two things, I want every paragraph to read and flow comfortably. I also want less words, it is cheaper to edit, less words less money spent. Also I am looking really closely to tabs and spaces, which can affect the lay out. Lastly, I want to avoid redundant sounding words or even the same words occupying a paragraph.
What do I mean?
Sometimes when we write a paragraph we over explain, I do this often. Take the statement it is cold outside. Writers will give two or three examples referencing the cold to give that vivid imagery when something short and sweat can work. The statement comes to mind. You can go the same distance for a nickel that you can for a quarter, why spend the same.
I am looking forward to my working on the second draft of my novel, it will give me the chance to really flesh out the emotions of the plot and create an even fuller picture. This will be the final chance I have to get this ready before my editor touches it.
Before I get the entire manuscript polished, I will use a secondary editor to just do a read through and offer opinions. A secondary editor is a contractual worker kept in reserve. A read through can cost around 100 dollars but it can point out some holes in your plot, then you go in tweak the second draft, then send it to your primary editor. During this process I shoot to cut out 1,000 from where I started, usually I gain several thousand words during my self-editing.
Once sending your manuscript off, wait one to six weeks for a return. Then read through all changes or corrections, then apply one more read through, send the changes back to editor, then once it is back, it needs to be read by the writer once more, then send off to publisher or post it on Amazon.