I Finished My First Draft! Now What?

Congratulations! Finishing your first draft is a big deal. You should be proud!

Take some time to celebrate this win. After all, you’ve done something that many people aspire to do, but very few accomplish.

Now that it’s done, set it aside for a little while. I know it’s tempting to dive right into edits, but you’re going to want to let your draft rest. Take a break from it. Give your brain a little vacation.

Let at least a week pass before you return to your draft. Now you can look at it with fresh eyes. Read through from start to finish and make some notes. You might find characters you forgot about, subplots that just dropped off, or places where you can add more now that you know how your story is going to end.

Once you’ve worked through the revisions that jump out at you, consider whether you’re going to work with a developmental editor. This is the first step in the editing process, and now is the perfect time to bring someone on board.

A developmental editor is going to help you establish a solid foundation for your story to be built on. This is where you’ll focus on plot, pacing, structure, tense, voice, and characterization. Making sure that these elements are strong is what is going to set your manuscript up for success.

Once you’ve finished your developmental edits, you’ll want to focus on your line edits. Line editing is focused on the stylistic elements of the sentences of your manuscript. This is where you ensure that the flow of your words is correct. At this stage, you’re making sure the actual words are right before you worry about punctuation and grammar.

Once you’re satisfied with the flow of your manuscript, you’ll move on to copyediting. Copyediting is where you’ll address the sentence-level mechanics. This is your grammar, punctuation, and spelling editing.

Once this is finished, your manuscript is ready to be formatted. This is where you’ll decide how the words are going to look on the page. You’ll decide on everything from the size of the letters to the spacing to how new chapters will look. This is where your manuscript will start to really feel like a book.

At this point, you’re ready for proofreading. Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process. This is where someone reviews your book, hunting for typos and formatting issues.

When you get your book back from your proofreader, you’re ready for publication! Congrats!