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So, you’ve got your 50,000 words down and finished NaNo. Now it’s all over until next year and you can put your feet up and relax. Err, no. Now the real work begins! That was just the first draft, you now need to edit, rewrite, maybe even write more because 50,000 words is not enough for a full novel. Of course, you could simply pop your manuscript into a drawer and forget about it, but wouldn’t that be a terrible waste? Think of all the time and effort you put into to producing it in the first place, don’t you owe it to yourself to see this project through to the end?

You’ve still got a lot of work to do, that is the bad news. The good news is, you don’t have to do it straight away – take December off, your novel isn’t going anywhere and the break will help to give you a fresh perspective on it’s strengths and weaknesses. In addition, you don’t have to work at the same frantic pace. Now you have your first draft, you can take your time and hone it to perfection.

If you aren’t quite sure how to go about editing or rewriting, the following links should help. Oh, and if you weren’t able to complete NaNo, pay a visit to the the I Wrote a Novel, Now What? page on the NaNo site for details of other novel writing months – yes, they are springing up all over the place.

Editing and Rewriting Guides
1) BBC Get Writing – Editing Mini Course: A short online course covering editing, rewriting and how to ask for and receive critiques.
2) How to Revise a Novel: Holly Lisle offers some really useful advice and tips from the perspective of a published novelist.
3) National Novel Publishing Year: A forum offering a step by step guide to transforming your novel from a rough draft into a finished manuscript ready to be submitted to publishers.
4) Editing 101: Another online course covering the basics of editing and rewriting.
5) Poewar – Read What You Have Written: Informative article explaining how to undertake that first reading and how to make use of it.
6) NaNoEdMo: Like NaNoWriMo, but with editing. If you want to edit your novel at the same frantic pace you wrote it, why not wait until March and do it in the company of other crazy, sorry, dedicated writers.

And that’s all folks! If you have any suggestions, tips or resources for NaNo re-writers, don’t forget to leave a comment. And if you are not the least bit interested in novel writing, don’t worry, normal service will be resumed asap.

This post was first published on December 6th, 2007

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