I've just finished the first draft of my first novel. Should I edit the whole lot before I send it to anyone for perusal or would it be acceptable, do you think, to edit the first three chapters and start flinging them around while I get on and edit the rest? Basically I'm assuming it'll take a while to get any bites - is that risky? And how likely is it that on editing/redrafting the whole lot will change dramatically or is it generally just tweaking? Advice from those who've been through the process would be appreciated.

Sal

Sal, many congratulations on finishing your first draft! That's a terrific achievement. Can I suggest that you don't read the following until you've spent at least an evening patting yourself on the back? This stage is so exciting. And you're right, it does take time to get answers.

But I think sending it out now isn't giving it as good a chance as it deserves. If an agent is interested in your first three chapters, they'll want to see the rest straight away, and if you have to say, 'Sorry, can't just yet, I'm still re-drafting,' they may say they're willing to wait, but it doesn't reflect very well on your professionalism that you sent something half-finished out. Plus you'll be feeling the pressure of fitting their expectations instead of what's right for the novel, and they'll be wondering how true what they've seen will turn out to be to the finished beast. I know there are stories of first novels being commissioned on the basis of a few chapters, but it's incredibly rare, (and there are also heart-breaking stories of agents taking on a new author, then letting them go because the rest of the novel wasn't up to scratch. Even of advances paid back because the writer was so paralysed by being commissioned that they couldn't finish it!). It's much more common for an agent/editor to think those chapters are promising, but be too busy to bother to wait for the rest when it's an unknown quantity. Easier to pass on to the next possible author, whose MS is all but ready to be copied and sent out.

That's the practical reason for waiting till you've done a full re-draft. But the other reason is much more important. It's the nature of creative writing - creative anything, really - that the first draft really is only that: the beginning of the process. If it were a painting it would be the full-sized preliminary oil sketch for the final thing. The next stage isn't just about just polishing the prose and getting the apostrophes in the right place. It's where the real writing work starts. You now know what you want to say, and how you want to say it. The next stage is to make sure that every single word says what you want to say as exactly as possible, and that there's nothing more you can add that would do it better, or that you need to subtract because it isn't earning its keep. It may only be tweaks to the writing (though I bet it isn't), or it may be a root-and-branch extraction of a subplot or character, but I'd be very surprised if your work on later chapters doesn't feed back into earlier ones and demand changes. Either you'll find that voice/language/tone/pace needs to change, or that something you change about a character or a plot-strand needs seeding much earlier in the story.

Personally, after the hysteria of finishing the first draft and thinking it's perfect and wonderful, I need to get some distance from the beast, by putting it in a drawer and doing or writing something else for at least a few weeks. Then I get it out and read it through fast and concentratedly and coolly, with a notebook to hand for what occurs to me, but not editing on the page. I try to think of myself as a reviewer, or a publisher's reader. Reading it aloud is another way of getting an outsider's sense of it. Then I have a list of broad ideas of what needs doing, and can work on them, and pick up all the boring fiddles and lose ends and repeated words and so on while you're at it. When I get to the stage of being able to say with confidence, 'That is the absolute best I can do, without compromise and with all the skills and patience I have at my command', then I'm getting nearer to the time to send it out.

Yes, the submission process does take time, but you can always do multiple submissions of sample material. You'll get some responses back fairly quickly and if they're positive, can use them to chivvy the others. Meanwhile, you can use the waiting time to start the next thing, enter some competitions, try some experiments in different forms, do research, whatever.

Whatever you decide to do, though, good luck!

Emma

First class advice, Emma.

I would add, Sal, that the re-drafting and editing process takes several stages. You have to go through it again and again and again. A fast read through, as Emma suggests, will show up holes and structural problems. You also need to edit for continuity and consistency in each thread, and then make sure they knit together correctly. Any stage of this process can necessitate changes in the first few chapters.

Whatever you do, don’t go off half-cocked. And don’t be too daunted by all this work. It’s an immensely satisfying process to take the lumpy clay of the first draft and craft it into a polished piece.

Good luck

Dee

Sal,

Congratulations, now don’t read any of it, or even touch it for as long as you can stand. Don’t even be tempted to read over any little bits you remember as being particularly good, just let it be. Then when you can’t stand it anymore, get the red pen out and start editing.

Personally then best thing I did, when I was at the stage you’re at, was to get the first few chapters edited by a professional. I learned so much, and am now busy applying what the lessons to the rest of the second draft.

Best of luck,

Grinder

Lots of good advice here. I agree with it all, especially about the rest period. The worst part of the stage you're at is having to contain the excitement. You've created something and want the world to know. But, if you have something original, and the writing isn't what it could be, you could be in for a lot of rejections for the wrong the reasons.

Give yourself some space. Write something else or find some other pastime to occupy a few weeks, then come back to script.

Your next stage isn't necessarily to neaten up each sentence, but to make sure the story flows right. ie, would chapter three be a better starting point? does chapter seven sit right? In short, does the novel work? Half of the battle for this stage is getting used to cutting or moving large chunks of text. The first time you decide to ditch three or four thousand words - especially if its a well written scene, and one you like - it hurts like hell. But sometimes it's gotta be done.

The agents aren't going anywhere, so time is on your side.

Best of luck.

Colin M

I'd second all of the above. It helps me to be ruthless if I have a file called 'dump' in with the other files for the novel, to put cut sections into. I can then persuade myself that they'll be useful elsewhere. They almost never are, but I've got over my emotional attachment by then. As I think I've said on WW before, nothing you write is ever wasted, even if it doesn't end up being used.

Emma