Well, it’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally finished the editing of my novel so it’s ready for the next, and hopefully final, draft before I start sending it out to literary agents.
I have been editing this novel for years now but it’s only in the last six months or so that I’ve finally knuckled down and put some proper thought and time into the process.
I have a playlist on my YouTube channel all about this editing process and it starts with a video called Writing my novel | what happens after the first draft? In that video I set out to edit the first draft of my novel and why it had taken me so long to get to this point. And I’m talking years!
A number of videos on this playlist share the process as I set about doing an outline of my novel, do some proper plotting, where I break it down and identify plot holes and write each chapter on index cards. It’s been a fascinating process and I learnt a lot about what was missing from my book. And now I’ve taken it apart I need to start the process of re-building - of piecing it back together again and to include everything I learnt about my characters and learnt about the holes in the plot.
Finally I did a little vlog at the weekend where I undertook the research I needed to do…and now I can begin the re-write. The final draft.
