‘To write is human, to edit is divine.’ – Stephen King

I hadn’t known what Stephen King meant by this, until I was head-deep in the process and now I totally get it.  I love editing and redrafting, it’s like taking a hammer to stone and carving something beautiful out of it. As a first-time writer, if you have written the first draft and aren’t sure what the next steps are or if you are feeling overwhelmed about the whole process, I thought it would be helpful to break down the different stages of the redrafting and editing process which I’ve touched on in a previous post The Writing Process but from the perspective of having spent a year deep in redrafting.

THE VOMIT DRAFT.

As a writer especially a first time writer, the first draft of your manuscript is called the vomit draft. As it says on the tin, it’s where you throw everything onto the page. It’s a practice run and it’s not meant to be any good because this draft is about pushing past fear and self doubt and just writing and getting to the end of the story you want to tell.  If you can do that, then you’ve already won half the battle.

So what happens beyond the vomit draft?  This is where the real work begins and where the magic happens.

A WHOLE NEW STORY.

Beyond the vomit draft, the next stage is the redraft. Because I didn’t have a clue how to write a book, I put my first draft through a detailed developmental edit, which I give an overview of in the post Handling Editorial Feedback.  After feeling utterly overwhelmed for two months, I got to work and now a year later have a second draft that feels like a completely different story. Or the same story just told much better, with greater pace, tension, backward and forward motion. I know of other writers who first work on the redraft then put it through developmental feedback.  Which way round you do it, will be dependent on your experience and storytelling skills.

GET SOME SPACE.

It’s so easy to go full steam ahead after the redraft, feeling like you’re on a roll. But the best thing you and I can do is take some time out to let the manuscript breathe and then read through the whole thing will more objectivity.  I know I’ll need this break as it’s been emotionally exhausting working through the last chapters, so it’ll good for my story and for me to get some distance. Once you’ve taken the time to do other stuff and have come back to it with fresh eyes, read through it fully making notes along the way then re-edit, tweak, correct as needed until you are happy.

THE PROFESSIONALS.

This one is all dependent on budget because the development edit is expensive.  You might not have the appetite or finances to spend more money but I think for first-time writers if you can, then it’s definitely worthwhile. I can’t recommend The Book Edit enough but there are many more out there and if budget is an issue then shop around. A good tip someone in the industry gave me after I’d already gone through the process, is to look at the library of books and authors the editor has worked on, and choose the one your book and wallet would be the right fit for.

THE FACELIFT.

These are the finessing stages of editing. This includes copy editing with a focus on reviewing grammar, spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, hyphenation and overall consistency and finally proofing, with lots of tweaking in between.

THE EMPTY NESTER.

From the vomit draft to the final stage of editing, your manuscript may go through the process between five to seven times before your baby is fully grown and ready to leave the nest to look for an agent and publisher. Or if you are going down the self-publishing route, is ready to go to print. Routes To Publishing explores both options to help guide your decision on the best way forward for you.

If you’re ready to get a chisel and hammer and create something beautiful beyond the vomit draft, I hope this post has been helpful for you. I also just wanted to end, by recommending some really cool and helpful AI Writing Tools out there to help aid you in the read-through stage, or the final copy-editing and proofing stage, if finances don’t allow for a professional to work on your facelift.

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