I've finally finished the first draft of my novel! I'm pleased with it, but there's a lot of tweaking to do before I publish it. I've decided to self publish, need to do some more research into how exactly to go about it, but I really feel that it's the best way for me to go. I just want as many people as possible to see my work, and as I'm an impatient person, as quickly as possible!
I'm currently reworking my opening chapters; nothing too drastic but using the advice I was given via youwriteon.com, I'm just making improvements which I hope will make reading my novel a better experience for my audience. I think editing can be really hard. It's often difficult to know what you're doing wrong as an author and how you can improve. So using this website and getting feedback from other authors has been invaluable to me. As I reread their comments and look at my work, I can see a little bit more clearly the direction my editing should take.
I'm actually enjoying the process of rewriting parts of my novel. It's good to continually question whether what you've written actually reads well and if it will be enjoyable for the reader. I hope it won't be too much longer before my story is finished and I can get it out there!
Hi Elaine. Good to hear that your novel is coming on and you are at the editing stage. I was wondering if you are planning to have a professional edit of your work as well. I wasn't going to at first but I eventually did and it was the best thing ever - having an objective pair of eyes go over it. Of course, you are at liberty to take on which suggestions you want to or ignore them altogether, but I found it very helpful. ended up taking on most of the changes the editor suggested, but not all, and was glad I did. I felt like it pruned away a lot of dead wood.
ReplyDeleteHi Kerry. Thanks for your comment, that's very helpful. No I wasn't going to have a professional edit done but it's definitely something to consider. I have, however, had the first two chapters of my novel looked at by other writers via a website called youwriteon.com, the idea being that you critique each other's work. I did find that very helpful and I amended the first two chapters of my novel using many of the suggestions from different writers. Thanks again for your comment.
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