
Indie Novella Writing Course
Lesson 9 - Editing

For the last week of the Indie Novella writing course we are going to focus on answering the all-important question; you’ve finished the first draft of your novel, what do you do now? To answer simply, enjoy the moment!
Writing a novel is an achievement. You’ve already succeeded where many have failed. So this lesson aims to provide you with tips and a series of resources when it comes to editing and what to do next when you’re done.
Have a well-earned rest
Time away from your novel once you’ve completed a draft is vital. As writers, we get so wrapped up in our story and in our characters, we are unable to perform the most critical function of an editor: being impartial. Time away, reading something new, writing something else, enables us to return to our manuscript later and do something essential – read it. While writing a novel is a great achievement in itself, to take a novel to publication you need to read your novel as a reader would. Therefore, put down that pen, switch-off that laptop, and put the first draft away. Jane Austen would lock her manuscript in a drawer and pass the key to a friend with strict instructions not to return it for a year. If you do choose to adopt this approach we do advise you to first check your phone and keys are not in said drawer. A good time to come back to your work is ideally when the conditions under which the book were written have been forgotten and you have a cold, clear eye on your work.