Revising My Manuscripts: from First Draft to the Final Draft
When I write a first draft, I’m thinking of nothing but getting the story out of my head and onto paper. Follow my outline. Don’t sweat the show-don’t-tell rule. Worry about vivid scene descriptions later. Don’t get bogged down trying to create awesome dialog. I’ll tackle all that stuff during the editing phase.
First Draft
If you don’t already know, first drafts are shitty; they’re supposed to be. If not, you’re spending too much time getting the story out of your head and onto paper (or onto the hard drive). That’s something I struggle with. When I get jammed up or suffer writer’s block, I’ll catch myself going back and revising the first draft before it’s even finished. That’s the quickest way to destroy a time schedule.
And that’s the benefit of having an outline and character sheets. It makes writing a single chapter easier. I try to write 1,000-1,500 solid words daily, which will give me approximately 30-35,000 words at the end of the month. This method allows me to modify my outline as I move my story along.
Within 3-4 months, I expect to have my first draft complete. Then it’s time to set it down, hide it, and walk away. Don’t look at it for nothing, for at least two weeks. Now, that said, I will be thinking about it nonstop, and I will scribble notes and throw them into the folder to address during the revision.
Editing Stage 1: Story Structuring and Paragraph (Style) Editing
Two weeks later I pull out the manuscript and read through it, making more notes regarding the story and paragraph structure, characters, and scenes. Then back in the drawer it goes, maybe for a day or two, or maybe for just a few hours until I’ve downed a few sodas and devoured a big bag of chips.
Story Structuring
Now I’m raring to go. It’s time to work. Time to rewrite entire scenes, relocate them in the story, maybe get rid of some, and maybe create new scenes. I’m paying close attention to whether the story flows without bumps in the road. This includes my characters: are they believable? Without a doubt, their dialog will need work. More importantly, do their actions, moods, and words match? Are my characters coming to life the way I created them? Sometimes my characters develop on their own. This is where having an outline before penning the first draft pays off. Otherwise I’m going to be spending a lot of time in this phase of editing.
Paragraph Editing
Next, I give paragraph and style editing my full attention. Some people do this in a separate stage, but since it involves restructuring and relocating, I include it with Story Structuring since I’m already moving pieces around.
What I’m doing now is making sure everything is clear, and that the reader can understand what I’m writing. Does my style of writing have a favorable rhythm and beat? Am I okay transitioning from paragraph to paragraph? What’s my adjective count? Are my sentences all the same length?
This first stage of editing requires me to become (more often than not) a butcher. My first drafts typically range between 110-150,000 words, but the final manuscript needs to come in around 80-120,000 words (35-45,000 for my novellas). My editor and I are looking for anything not germane to the story. If I have characters who do nothing for the story, I erase them out of existence. Usually I’m cutting out a scene rather than eliminating a character. The bulk of my butchering is done in this stage. The rest I do in Stage 2.
Fact Checking
At the end of Stage 1 and moving into Stage 2, I’m also doing a lot of fact checking: does my timeline progress accurately? Do my characters age true? Do scenes transition according to the hours of the day, and day and night? The last thing I want is a guy sitting in his house at two in the afternoon, who runs outside under the moonlight.
I once read a novel whose villain was armed with a .45mm pistol. Holy Cow!! That’s a HUGE gun!! Sad to say no one makes such a handgun. He meant .45 caliber. You also don’t want to have a character with a missing arm punching people with that arm. FACT CHECK!!!
Editing Stage 2: Line (copy) Editing
Most people refer to paragraph editing as line editing, and copy editing as sentence editing. Not me. I see a paragraph as a block of text, and a sentence as a line of text. Thus, I refer to sentence editing as line editing. I call things how I see them, not necessarily as others tell me to. Yeah, I break rules before rules break me.
Regardless of what I call it, I’m doing the same thing as everyone else at this stage: editing grammar, usage, and punctuation. I’m looking for particular inconsistencies, such as whether a character’s name is spelled differently throughout the manuscript (Eric, Erik, Erick; Dave v. David)? This goes for locales and objects too. I’m also checking for word variants, such as American versus British spelling: behavior v. behaviour; color v. colour.
Right about now is when my editor and I lock horns over so-called grammar rules, like the split infinitive. Stupid rule! I’m also looking for too many sentences that begin with -ly and -ing words. I don’t want to be thought of as a lazy hack writer.
After line editing is complete, I send the manuscript to my betas, but I don’t wait for their feedback. I press on to the next stage.
Editing Stage 3: Proofreading
Finally, the last stage, and it’s not as easy as it seems. I’ve read the manuscript so many times it’s memorized, which means my eyes read right over typos as I think of what I wrote instead of seeing what I wrote. It doesn’t help that I struggle with dyslexia, so I move tediously through this stage.
As I’m wrapping up, I’m getting feedback from my betas. I never get it all at once, which is fine. What I hope not to see is redundancy in their comments. If they’re all commenting on the same thing at around the same point of the story, I have a problem.
After the beta dump and cleanup, my manuscript is complete and ready for submission.