Hellooo, everybody! If you're watching this video there's a good chance you just finished the first
draft of your book. Finishing the first draft is the strangest feeling. It starts with this
overwhelming sense of relief. You told the story, in full, by yourself! But right after that
the panic sets in. Guess what bitch, that was the easy part. You gotta take that massive pile
of word vomit and turn it into a coherent, marketable, unfucked up story. “How the hell
am I supposed to do that?” This is why so many writers finish their first draft and stop there.
They're overwhelmed by the idea of reading it, critiquing it, editing it,
soliciting it for feedback, proofreading it—so many steps. And that's not even all of them.
Mulling over the sheer volume of everything you have to do just to make your novel readable, is
enough to make you wanna burn it to the ground. That's where I come in. I've been in this position
multiple times. Enough to know how to ease into self edits without losing your goddamn mind. Plus
now felt like a great time to cover this seeing as NaNoWriMo just ended, and if you've won,
you probably have a shitty first draft on your hands. It's okay, most first drafts are shitty.
Thus, I am breaking down the ten steps you should take after you finish your first draft. The goal
of these steps is to make the subsequent drafting and self editing a lot easier and more manageable.
There's no need to freak out. We're in this together. And unlike my usual lists, the last tip
is going to be a huge load off your back. Let's get to it.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO)
Before we get started, a friendly reminder that my Black Friday book sale is almost over.
Right now you can get my number one best selling dark fantasy romance novel The Savior's Champion
for just 99 cents. You can get it in all ebook formats across all platforms,
including Kindle, Kobo, Nook, whatever. This sale is available internationally, but it ends
in just a couple days. So get to it. The link is listed below. Check it out. Additionally,
I wanted to say a huge thank you to NovelPad for sponsoring today's video. Throughout my writing
journey I've been super honest about the fact that I've tried a million different novel writing
software's and I have hated all of them. Except for NovelPad. NovelPad is a straightforward,
easy to use software, specifically for novelists. Every feature is designed to help you remember
what you were doing as quickly as possible, and keep you one click away from writing at all times.
NovelPad also lets you track your work from as many angles as possible. You can track it based on
a specific character, based on chapters, you can track it based on your plot or subplots, you can
even track it based on settings. One of the things I love most about NovelPad is they're constantly
adding new features based on user feedback. That means you guys. They recently added the thirty
second backup system, that allows you to go back and forth between any saved point in your novel,
which is a huge help. They also have a fantastic goals and analytics feature. It automatically
adapts to your progress, allows you to specify sprints and vacations, and it gives you live
updates on your writing. Which is perfect for, duh, if you're setting goals. Of all
the new features, my favorite is the comparison feature. You can now compare any two revisions
of scenes and essentially pick a winner. Which is really helpful if you're stuck between rewrites,
that happens to me all the time. I'm sure you can relate. If you're interested in trying
out NovelPad I highly recommend them. Plus if you click the link in the description below,
you can try them out for two weeks for FREE. No credit card required, which means there's no risk.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays. And if you
wanna be alerted as soon as I upload, ring that bell. Definitely ring it. You wanna be alerted,
and look for the holidays, I dress up like an elf. It's awesome. Now I'm breaking down my ten
tips for fighting past the overwhelm and handling your first finished draft. Number One (1): Take a
break. This is probably the last piece of advice you'd expect to hear from me, but hear me out.
A lot of writers like to take a break between writing their first draft and embarking on edits.
If you've recently written a story you are deeply familiar with it. And this level of familiarity
may make it harder to spot your mistakes. Think of it as the mistakes being incognito.
That said, I personally don't think all writers need to take a break before editing. It depends
on how long it's taken you to write this draft. In theory, when you begin editing this novel,
you're starting with chapter one. And if you wrote chapter one six months ago, you probably don't
need to take a break. Six months is a long time. Chapter one won't be that familiar to you. So it
should be pretty easy to spot mistakes. However, if you wrote the first chapter one month ago, it's
probably still super fresh in your mind, in which case a break might be beneficial. If you decide to
take a break, I personally wouldn't recommend it being any longer than one month. Usually one to
two weeks is perfectly sufficient for me. Number Two (2): Go with a game plan. This is something I
recommend you do before anything else, especially if this is your first time in the situation. When
you read your first draft you're gonna see a lot of issues. Like, a lot. This is especially true if
you don't edit as you go, and most writers don't. And it's ten times worse if you're a pantser.
This is when the panic really kicks in. You're going to realize just how significant of an
overhaul your manuscript requires. And it's gonna turn your brain into mashed potatoes,
which is why you need a game plan. A game plan is a simple set of steps you're going to follow
one at a time in order to navigate the drafting and self editing of your novel, without shittin’
your pants. And to make it super easy on you, I've made the remaining steps of this video,
the steps of my personal game plan. This is the game plan I've developed over years of experience.
It works best for me. Hopefully it'll work for you too. Which brings us to Number Three (3): And the
first step of my game plan. Read your shitty first draft. The whole damn thing. It might be
embarrassing, it might be painful, but you can cry about it later. Go through your manuscript,
chapter by chapter, and read everything. Note I didn't say edit, that is not the focus of
this step. Sure. If you see a quick fix, like a misspelled word, or a missing punctuation mark,
go ahead and change it. But ultimately your goal is to get an idea of what exactly you're dealing
with. What are your biggest issues? What are your most repeated words and phrases? Which characters
aren't capturing your attention? Which scenes need to be completely rewritten or deleted? I know you
might feel like you gotta fix them right away, but I promise you if you do, you are going to
get overwhelmed. Right now you're just getting a scope of the job ahead, so you can handle it in an
organized fashion. Which brings us to Number Four (4): Tag it. When you're reading your first draft,
you're gonna notice a shit ton of well, shit. Instead of editing it, we are going to tag it.
Highlight, embolden, or mark the mistakes you find. Personally I prefer color coding.
I like to assign specific types of issues their own color. For example, repetition is yellow,
inconsistencies are pink, filler is blue, and total rewrites are green. This is why NovelPad
is such a huge help in this situation. They have a color coding feature that is super easy to
use. Plus they allow tracking based on individual characters, plot points, chapters, and settings,
which is great if one of your issues revolves around one of these things in its entirety. Again,
the point of tagging is to label your mistakes to make them easier to find and thus fix during
the self edit. On a similar note, Number Five (5): Comments and questions. This is
for issues that can't be categorized by color. Usually because they're a lot more specific
and require more thought and strategy. Say for example, you reach a sex scene and it needs
way more detail. Rather than stewing over it, simply leave a comment that states ‘elaborate’ or
‘needs more detail.’ This again helps point your future self in the right direction, while also
silencing the internal overwhelm. You know the issue will be addressed because you're holding
yourself accountable now. This particular step is also helpful if you plan to enlist critique
partners. If you've got a question that requires a second pair of eyes, leave a comment. Say you've
written a line of dialogue and you don't know if it's romantic or cheesy. Leave a comment asking
exactly that, and your critique partner can answer it later. Speaking of critique partners,
we have Number Six (6): Put your feelers out there for critique partners, obviously. I hope that was
obvious. This is assuming you don't already have critique partners lined up, which tends to be the
case with most newbie writers. You guys are so hell bent on finishing your first draft,
you forget that people eventually gotta read it. I'd recommend looking for a critique
partner that reads and writes within the same genres that you're writing, and is at a similar
talent level as you, but has a different set of skills. Say for example, you both write fantasy,
but you're strong in characterization and they're strong and world building.
This type of partnership is mutually beneficial, you can help them with their characters, they can
help you with your world. Please don't despair if it takes a while to find solid critique partners.
It can take a long time to find people you mesh with, but that's exactly why you should be looking
for them now, if not months ago. Number Seven (7): Address consistencies. This is the first and only
edit I recommend you make at this point. When I say consistencies, I mean changes that you've
decided to make that affect the entirety of the novel. For example, you're changing a character's
name, you're changing the name of a setting, or you're changing the spelling of a fantasy word.
These types of edits are perfectly fine to address right now. One because they're simple,
and two because they're super distracting, so you might as well nip ‘em in the bud as soon
as possible. It's really easy to do a simple find and replace for these types of issues, or you can
refer to NovelPads tracking feature. You can find everything that particular character appears in,
or every scene featuring that setting, and do the switcheroo. Once you get these little changes
addressed it'll feel like a major load off without much effort at all. Number Eight (8): Create a
list. After you’ve read your first draft you're going to have a very vivid picture of the uphill
path you're about to climb. Rather than wallowing in despair or lighting the thing on fire,
it's time to make a list. Namely, list your most common mistakes, the repeat offenders and leave
it at that. The purpose of this is to elaborate on your game plan. You've already tackled the
first few steps. Now you want to document your problem areas, the parts that need the most work
and education. This is not to shame you, it's to give you actionable steps that will make
your editing process so much easier. Plus it shows you exactly where you need to hone your skills and
grow your craft which brings us to, Number Nine (9): Work big to small. This list of fuck ups is
gonna feel really discouraging, but don't worry, we're about to soften the blow. First categorize
your list into three sections. The first section is developmental issues; these are problems on
a story basis, like issues with your characters, world building or plot holes. The second section
is issues with prose; this is anything involving sentence structure, pacing, or flow. The third
section is all things grammar, punctuation and syntax; basically the nuts and bolts of your
writing. You may notice these sections mirror the professional editing process, namely the
developmental, line, and copy edits. And that's 100% intentional. These sections categorize the
large issues, aka the developmental issues. The medium size issues, which are the prose. And the
smaller issues, which are grammar and punctuation. Please note when I say large versus small issues,
I don't mean important. I mean the size and depth of the edit itself. You want to start with the
large issues and work your way down to the smaller ones. This is because larger story based issues
typically involve massive rewrites. Sometimes of entire chapters. It makes a lot more sense to fix
these issues first, and then move on to prose and grammar. Which brings us to Number Ten (10):
Work in sections. Congratulations. You're finally embarking on the self-edit. Don't panic, you may
be freaking out at this point because now you actually have to edit your shit pile of a first
draft. But this is exactly why we tackle it in sections. Typically when you start to self edit,
the first section you tackle is the developmental issues. If you have a lot of developmental issues,
tackle them one at a time. Start with the one that requires the most rewrites,
and work your way down. Once you reach the prose and grammar sections, you can usually tackle
things on a chapter by chapter basis. Depending on how many prose and grammar issues you have,
you can delegate a certain number of chapters to work on per day. I usually give myself three to
four chapters a day, that might be way too many for your process, whatever, do you. Sectioning
your drafting and self editing is super important, because it creates focus. It allows you to hone
in on a particular problem. Plus it takes your attention away from all the other bullshit you
gotta do in the future, which makes the process a lot less intimidating. And now we reach
bonus option, Number Eleven (11): Because tis the season for giving. Fix your attitude. I save this
for last because it is such a widespread issue, particularly among newbie writers. You guys come
in two categories. You're either overconfident and think nothing needs fixing, or you're deeply
insecure and you're humiliated by all the mistakes you found in your first draft. If you fall into
the first category I doubt there's much I can say to shake that. You probably think very
little of this video applies to you, enjoy your one star reviews. But if you're in the second,
far more common category, get a grip. Your first draft is your very first attempt at this book. The
first attempt of anything is always a mess, that's why God made man first. Additionally, the fact
that you're noticing issues in this draft, is a good thing. It means you're a superior writer now,
verses when you began this story. You've learned, you've grown, you've improved upon your skills.
That means right now you have way more of what it takes to make this book amazing. And guess what,
once you finish the second and third draft, you'll probably be an even better writer. So stop
cringing and start giving yourself the props you deserve. You're coming into your own. You don't
want to be the writer who thinks their first draft is perfect. That guy never evolves which
means they just stay a crappy writer forever. You on the other hand are growing and kicking ass,
and for that I salute you. So that's all I got for you today. A huge thank you to NovelPad for
sponsoring today's video. If you've got a finished first draft and you're ready to spruce it up,
check them out right now. If you click the link below, you can try them for two weeks for FREE.
No credit card required. Definitely check them out. They're awesome. Don't forget, The Savior's Champion
is on sale for 99 cents right now, but it's only going to be on sale for a couple more
days. So if you're looking to get your families and friends some amazing holiday gifts, if you
wanna get something for yourself, definitely check it out. It's linked below. Get on it real quick,
because it's going away soon. Okay? Okay, do it. Yeah, I'm gonna point at you one more time,
another time, one more time. And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram,
Tumblr, Facebook and BookBub. And of course you can tweet @JennaMoreci! Bye!
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