by Kelley Armstrong

So you’ve just completed your NaNoWriMo novel and you think it’s ready to go out to publishers? Not so fast. I’ve done NaNo  every year since 2005, and what I produce in that month is nowhere near ready to show to my editors. It’s only the first step in many. Here’s a crash course in getting that NaNo work up to snuff…

Finish it. Unless you’re writing category romance or middle-grade, 50,000 words is not a novel. Find out what’s standard for your genre and keep going. Done? Good. Now put it away for a few months. Get some distance. Then take it out. Read once as a reader, not an editor. Don’t line-edit. Just make notes on the big problems. Can’t find any? They’re there—look harder. Fix those. Then do your first line edit. If you’re an experienced writer (i.e. you’ve written at least 2 novels already), then skip to the next step. Otherwise, put it away for two months and repeat the editing process. Next, get feedback. Family and friends are fine. Fellow writers are better. Get their feedback. Fix the major criticisms. Do another line edit. Then find a second wave of “test subjects.” Repeat. Now, finally, you’re ready to send it out…and to begin the next novel, so those rejections won’t sting quite so much.

Does it sound like a lot of work? It is, but it’s good practice for being a professional novelist, where you’ll do a similar amount of editing on every book, getting it in the best shape possible for your editors…and hopefully an audience!