P-A-S-S-I-O-N and Confidence And Publication Part 9 of 11
Getting close to the end, thanks Jennifer Roland for the word count html. Passion is a beast that sometimes needs to be tamed, even a bit. It’s the time between the first draft and the editing of said draft. ( or as a friend of mine once said “between the OH MY GOD IT”S GONNA BE HUGE!! A BESTSELLER!!!!! OH MY GOD! to gee I can’t believe I wrote that stuff) If it sounds a bit deflating it shouldn’t be.
How many of us only work on one thing? One book one article one blog? Not many, as writers there is always something we can do, and that keeps our passion burning. But after a first draft put it away, put it all away. When I say put it all away even the little bitty post it note with the ideas you wrote about it.
This is important since if you really want to be passionate about editing a first draft you need to put it away for a few days, better yet, a week. Then go and find it. Read it all the way through and then take your pen. Don’t pick up a pen unless you want to mark a question mark on the page even then use a pencil.
After you’ve read it through you can be an editor, you know how much work there is to getting this piece into a publishable form. This take some time, now if your like myself, it can take a while, but i know I’m a perfectionist, and I do things a bit weird, I spend way to much time on content and not enough on spelling and grammar.
One thing: Spell Check is not your friend in this case.
Do not use spell check, but use the old fashioned dictionary and grammar book. This is why everyone who writes has their own personal library. This is vital to editing, and more so when the editing is complete.
Two Words: Writer’s Market.
Don’t have it? Get it. Really it’s beyond a huge help. This way you can find about a thousand publishers that list what they are looking for and all that fun stuff. It even will list agents and who is accepting or not. Read it. Also, know your market, I mean write up a target market, anything to help you know where you should go to get this book or whatever published.
All part and parcel if we want the best of the best out there.
My Question for you today is this: hat is the most important thing you can do between the first draft and the editing of said draft?
3 Comments
Damaria Senne
I agree; put it away, so you can get some distance from it. Come back to it fresh, and you will have some new ideas to imrpove what you alraedy have; and see more clearly the areas that need improvement.
JS
I agree with Damania. In addtiona, in between I would also read pieces of other authors on the same subject.
Joanna
i agree with both damaria and JS- you need at least a week away from your project so you can come back with new eyes. This doesn't mean you can't be working on something else that week, too! 😉 Also, writers market is great, but there are a few sites like duotrope and wordhustler that are free and up to date listings. good luck everyone!