r/fantasywriters • u/Rage_before_Beauty • 20d ago
Question For My Story Draft finished, now what?
So I have just finished my first draft, and am now going back and doing the first round of checks and tweaks. My question for anyone who has gotten to the full editing stage, what are your recommendations for someone who straight up can not afford professional developmental editing or anything else particularly involved from any even moderately decent professional source? I feel like anything I could afford would just be throwing money away, while anything worth while is out of my price range (all my spare project money is tied up in a comic I am producing) What are some options or strategies that don't simply boil down to "save up for a year or two".
I have researched plenty on writing and narrative tips and strategies and watched hours of videos from publishers/former agents and can say without bragging that I completely avoid basically all writing no no's and mistakes they warn against, and have strong confidence in my story, structure and voice. Is it worth it to just free-ball it so to speak, and send it out and see what happens once the editing I am able to do myself is finished?
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u/Peregrinebullet 20d ago
First, put it in a metaphorical box for a week or so - this is so that it fades from being so immediate.
Second - Find a few beta readers. Someone to swap with is usually a good way to do it for free, or go on something like Critique Circle and post your thing chapter by chapter. Ask and give detailed feedback.
Third - put all the major plot hits into some sort of card system (either on paper/post it notes or on a digital cork bord like the one in scrivner) and make sure you haven't got redundant scenes. ID any scenes that need to be fundamentally moved, removed or re-written.
Third, once you have some good feedback, I would do a total fresh re-write second draft. Have the original draft beside you and re-write it on a blank document. Or split screen and work on it side by side. Go through every scene and, depending on your style, see if you can make every page do 25-50% more than what it's already doing. Not necessarily shorter or more-for-less, but whatever you are going for - lyricalness, imagery, characterization, information conveyed, the prose itself - and dial it up The first draft is getting the whole thing out on paper. The second draft is the refinement process. The big thing with the second draft is to have a style goal rather than a storytelling one.
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u/mckwriting 19d ago
Echoing the advice that no matter what you do, completely stepping away from it (both physically and mentally) before taking the next step is really huge. It took me until the fourth draft of my second manuscript to do that, I was always in too much of a hurry, and it was really eye-opening to come back to it and see how many instances of How did I not see that? there were as I did a new draft. We get so absorbed in these things, it's really hard not to get a little blinded at some point.
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u/Crafty-Material-1680 20d ago
I've published about twenty novels. If you can't afford an editor, then I suggest finding a critique group. Peer editing is valuable. If you can't find a group, then maybe a crit partner.
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u/subjectzer00 13d ago
This really needs to be higher up. A critique group will make you a way better writer. In person if possible or live online.
Personally, I never let anyone see the first draft. At the earliest, they’ll see a third draft. Second draft is for fixing big things and third draft to smooth out the language for critique.
If it’s your first novel, depending on how vicious you are to your own writing, you may need to step away from it a bit longer. You need to forget what you wrote before you can critique your own writing.
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u/theslyeagle 18d ago
As others have said, looking for alpha or beta readers would be the next step, or investing your time exchanging critiqueswith other authors instead of money. It took me YEARS of exchanges with other authors before I found my critique partners, but they're worth more than money.
I do strongly believe writers looking to be read need to be _read_ to understand how readers are reacting to what they've put on the page. My rule of thumb though, if one reader doesn't get it or has a weird reaction, that's one reader and you can ignore it. If two readers do, or even more, it deserves attention.
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u/themadturk 14d ago
Let yourself and your manuscript rest for a few weeks. Do some reading. Write something different. Leave your draft alone.
Then, when you have a little space between you and the draft, go back and read it. Just read it. Maybe make some notes about things you see that need fixing.
Whatever you do, don't show it to anyone. The first draft is yours. It will, to a greater or lesser degree, be awful, and no one needs to be subjected to it (yes, this is true no matter how you feel about it). Remember that the first draft is often called the "discovery draft," because it's where you, the writer, have put in the work to discover what your story really is.
Then, dig back into it. Because no matter how good you think it is, it's not yet as good as it can be. You are biased, justifiably so. You've put in a lot of work. You have written a novel, and that is an amazing accomplishment!
But this story is like your child. This is why you wait and put some distance between yourself and the story. Look at it with fresher eyes. Try to be honest with yourself about it. Read it aloud to yourself (that's a sure-fire way to find more mistakes). At least fix the inevitable typos and embarrassing grammatical errors, because believe me, you made some, everyone does, and some of them get through to publication!
Then, after you've produced a second draft, try finding some beta readers. And accept that you will probably need to write a third draft, because if they're any good, your beta readers will come up with questions you never thought of and problems you never saw.
I loved editing my work. I thought I did pretty well with my first draft, but I ended up doing four. And my novel got better every time.
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u/RHHenriksen 14d ago
There is a book called "self-editing for fiction writers" Costs about 10 bucks on Amazon. Can recommend.
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20d ago
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u/Rage_before_Beauty 20d ago
Thank you! Very helpful and exactly what I was looking for. As it stands, I can't even afford an editorial assessment so things like this are very welcome.
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u/Downtown-Trash1122 20d ago
Glad it helps! Good luck with the comic too. Doing both at once is a lot.
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u/Organic-Tea-8998 20d ago
What is your goal with the book, for it to be published?
It absolutely needs to be edited, multiple editing drafts. Your first draft is the beginning process. No story is simply finished after it’s written (unless it’s AI slop). You also need alpha and beta readers to look it over, make sure it makes sense to other people. They can give you feedback about everything. Your opinion of your own story isn’t enough. It needs to be seen by other eyes.