Never though I'd actually finish. Now what do I do? http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909 Eicca Work count clocks in at ~88,500. I'm kind of blown away. It's taken me five years to get to this point, and without NaNoWriMo the second half would never have happened. Now I'm kind of disoriented. It's all like "I actually made it and now I have no idea what to do...?" Revise, obviously. Where should I start? What should I do? Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:35:28 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1116920 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1116920 jordan.williams42 Hehe, firstly, well done!!! Secondly, I think the best thing to do would be to have a break while youn get as many people to read is as possible so you can get some feedback. Then, based on what you get back, you can start the editing. So I'd post a request for readers on this site if you haven't already, talk to your friends about it and get some feedback. I wish you all the best with it! Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:04:11 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117192 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117192 Jude Conlee Well, that's an absolutely amazing feat, so first you should acknowledge how far you've come. And I agree with the first poster, you should get some other people to read it. However, you should also make sure that a lot of them like to read the sort of work you've done (for example, if it's a romantic epic, don't get all your sci-fi short story readers to critique it). After this point, you do the editing (which I'm not even going to attempt to advise you on, because I'm bad at editing myself and I mostly do it while I'm writing the book anyway). Then decide what you really want to do next with it. Do you want to try selling it, or is it enough for you to just have written it? I'm going to operate under the impression that you want to sell it. I'm not very familiar with the process associated with selling novels, but I do know you need to get an agent (all the people who work without them are doing it wrong, according to every creative writing teacher I've studied under). That process involves sending a query letter to people in New York and hoping they'll read the kind of stuff you've written, and it just gets fairly complicated from there...I'm not going to get into it. But yeah. This is...pretty much what you do. I think. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:51:46 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117358 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117358 Leonara Declamara See, I'm going to be the dissenting voice here. I don't think you should rush immediately off to get feedback. Getting a critique when you haven't even bothered to edit yourself is a waste of your time, and the people you're asking for feedback. You need to make it as good as YOU can before asking other people to take a look; otherwise, they're going to tell you things you already know need fixing. I do think that distance is important. Taking time off, weeks, or months, will give you better perspective on what you've written so you can edit more objectively. Don't worry about the process of sales and querying and publication until you have something that's worth trying to publish. Why waste time on learning how to query if you haven't even finished a piece to the point where it's good enough to actually publish? Spend that time learning what to do next, how to edit, how to read critically... and more importantly... how to critique other people's works. See, I think you learn more from critiquing what other people have written than you do from geting people to "beta read" your unfinished crap. And while you're waiting to edit this one? Start the next one. Keep the momentum up, keep moving forward. Don't let your mind stop creating. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:12:06 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117577 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1117577 Eicca Thanks for all the input! Yeah, I intend to get this one published, so hopefully that'll go well. In the meantime, I'll follow the advice and get a few friends in on reading this sucker. Thanks for all the help! I'm excited about this! Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:18:07 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1118004 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1118004 ksue I would put it away for a couple of weeks and then do an initial edit before you send it to others to read. Especially if you know where the weak parts are, or spots that you know you want to fix. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:50:40 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1118830 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1118830 Jaina I second (third?) the suggestion to hold off a bit. You want to at least give it a once-over with fresh eyes before you send it out for critiques from anyone else. There's a lot that you will catch on your own, and can fix right away. Once you've got it as good as you think you can get it on your own, THEN send it out! That way everyone who sees it will see your best with fresh eyes, and can spot things that you missed because you were so close to it. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:17:59 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122479 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1122479 kei8 On the question of whether or not to send it off for feedback right away--I think it depends. Mostly on how much you yourself know about the shape your story's in and what it needs. I have a Nano from two years ago that--if I were going to seriously revise it--I would not send out to anyone before the second draft. I know where it sucks and I know its strong points and I know what the first step needs to be in wrenching it toward something that looks like a book (namely, get the wandering plotline into a single cohesive story). But my bigger WIP (that I'm just starting to revise now)? I definitely needed to send that out. Not because it is any less sucky than my old Nano, but because I didn't know exactly where it sucked. I had spent so much time on this monster of a book that it was hard to look at it with an "outsider's" eyes. So I had a few people look at it and their responses (together with what I learned when I reread it after putting it away for a couple of months) helped me to see where the weaknesses lay and what I needed to do to make it a stronger book. And now I have at least some idea of what the revision needs to accomplish. tl;dr: Whether you should send it out right away depends on your situation. But definitely yes, take a break. Watch some TV. Go for a run. And then, if you want to have someone read it, pick a select few individuals who you trust to give you insightful and honest feedback. Sending it out to the wrong sorts of people just gets you a lot of empty compliments and not much to work on. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:22:15 +1000 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1124004 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/49909?page=1#forum_thread_comment_1124004