Your First Novel - What to Do After Your First Draft

If you have completed your first draft of your novel, you may be wondering what to do now. After all, a published author basically hands it over to his/her editor and goes on about their day. If you are an unpublished author, you have more work ahead of you.

First you must print it out and read it yourself. If you have only read it on a computer screen then you must print it out and read it on paper. I suggest that you read it with a red pen in your hands and make changes while you read. I promise, when you read it on paper it begins to come to life and you will see the story more clearly and you will want to make changes so take my advice about the pen.

Next, you will need to edit your changes. Re-write the novel and make changes as needed. I think you would be better served printing out your story again after you made changes and read it again from front to back with a pen in your hand - again. You should do this over and over and over until you can read your novel without finding any flaws, grammatically and taking the story line into consideration. Make sure your characters are vivid and that your novel has a clear beginning, middle and an end.

Once you have printed out your novel and read it to the point where you think it's perfect, then you need to complete another task. I suggest you give your novel to five or ten people. The point of this is very easy to understand. Let them read it and when you get it back, listen to what they have to say. Let me give you an example of what you're looking for in letting 10 people read it. If one person says "I love the book except for chapter 4" and you go back and look at chapter 4 and think that it needs to stay there and doesn't deserve to be rewritten. Then leave it alone. Pay no mind to their criticism. However, if three, six or eight people all say "I didn't like chapter 4" then you better listen.

Re-read the section that the group of people didn't like and ask them what they would like to see in chapter 4. When several people all point out the same thing, you'd better listen but don't worry too much if one person doesn't like one particular part of your novel.

Another thing to do is to allow people to read your novel and only include the pages necessary to get them to the very end without telling them the ending. This is a great exercise to understand how much of an impact your novel makes. If the reader REALLY wants to know what the ending is and can't wait to know what happens and how it ends, then you have done your job. If the reader could careless about the ending, then your novel doesn't work. You didn't get the reader involved enough - the reader simply wasn't engaged in the story and no one wants to read a story like that. Also, you should ask the reader, how they would end it. Listen to them and see if their ending is better than yours. Let them know up front that you are looking for ideas and anything they say could end up in the book without payment from you. If you are speaking with a very close friend or a family member, it shouldn't be a problem.

Once you book is edited to the point where your readers liked it, and you can no longer go any farther with it and it is the best it's going to be, then you should visit your local college/university. Go to the English department and speak with the head of the department and tell them who you are and that you're looking for a local editor.

They should give you the name of some one that teaches there if they don't tell you that they would like to help you themselves. Get with that teacher that can help you and let them read you book. Be prepared to pay them 50 Cents a page if they ask for it. Be honest with yourself and know that you will more than likely have to pay someone to help you out.

Pay them what they want. $200 -$400 is reasonable if they ask for it. Then you will need to do re-writes as needed and when that teacher says it is ready for submission to an agent and or publisher, then you should proceed but not until then. This path will guide you to where you need to be in order to be taken seriously as an author.