Once you’ve reached the end of the first draft of your novel manuscript, it’s time to celebrate! This is a HUGE accomplishment, one that takes some writers decades to reach. You should celebrate! At this point, you should ignore how many steps of the writing process are yet to be worked through and take a break. For now, the bulk of the writing is done, and your brain needs some rest before making the shift into edit mode.
I know what you’re thinking: Wait, edit mode? But you said I was done!
Ummm, well—you’re getting there. Once you’ve celebrated a bit and maybe even taken a vacation (because your head probably hurts, and you’re probably exhausted from writing so much in such a short period,) it’s time to remind yourself about all those additional steps — evaluating, revising and refining, etc. — that we haven’t yet covered in this novel writing series. Because no matter how good your writing is, first drafts are crap. After the celebration, it’s time to get down to the real work of finishing your novel.
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Write on the World 