by Wes Penre, April 30. 2021
I finished the first draft of my novel yesterday. At its current stage, it’s 350 pages long, but that might change.
Now, the tedious parts remain; I need to edit it. This means I’ll read it, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, and chapter by chapter with a “magnifying glass,” making grammatical changes and rewriting parts I’m not happy with. Then, I’ll read it again, this time in context, as if I was reading the finished book. While doing that, I’ll make changes where I see fit, until I feel satisfied. Then, it’s time for beta readers. This means a few people read the raw manuscript and give their input. The reason for this is because the author (me) is so involved in the process of their work that they sometimes don’t see some of the mistakes and/or inconsistencies. Is the pace too slow? Too fast? Is it engaging? It’s the same even for very experienced authors. I listened to Brandon Sanderson, who is arguably the most famous fantasy author in the world right now. He goes through his manuscript five times before he publishes his books… I think Tolkien went through the Lord of the Rings a couple of dozen times.
Anyway, it’s exciting, and I’ll probably start the editing process tomorrow.
It’s a trilogy, so there are two books left in the series.
Wes Penre Books 