Writing Drafts

This post, as the title suggests, will be about the drafting process for novels.  However, this is not everything.  Hopefully I will find time to post more on this before long.:)

1st draft: Just get the words on paper A.S.A.P!  Do not edit as you go, don't delete anything, just type, type, type!  Set a words count goal, 50,000 works well, and a deadline.  I recommend 1 month.  it may not seem like enough time, but believe me, i have done it and it is possible.   After you have reached 'The End' set your load of literary genius aside for 6 weeks.  You may not want to, but you need to!

2nd draft: Change the font of your novel and print it out. Changing the font will help to give you a fresh perspective on your book. The first time you read it don't edit anything, mark anything, or highlight anything. Just read.  The read it again.  This time through mark all grammar and spelling errors.  Even after doing a spell check, this should take hours.  Then hop on your computer and fix all the errors you found.

3rd draft:   The third time get a pen and go through and mark the big stuff, plot hole and character problems. Then fix those.  Getting another writer's opinion on characters can be a help here, but it depends on the person.  Find another writer who understands your writing style and genre to help you with this.

4th draft: This is the slow part.  Now you get to go word by word, sentence by sentence, making sure you have picked the perfect words.  This will take a long, long, time, but it is well worth it.

When you have finished this your novel is ready to be sent to a professional editor who will give you pages and pages of stuff that needs to be changed or improved before it can be published.  Don't be alarmed when this happens!  Books that have reached the top of the New York Times best seller list had pages of edits to do too!