Time to celebrate. Just a few minutes ago, I wrote THE END on the first draft of my newest novel “Falling Bak-ward”. This is the completion of step two in my personal writing process. I had written an outline. Lately they are huge. It was a 23,000 word outline for an 86,000 word novel.
Now comes the clean-up process. Lots of hours checking grammar and spelling. Then I’ll read it through for smoothness. Some time in that process, I’ll convert it to a spoken version and play it back through my iPod.
Then I’ll hand a limited set of copies to select first-readers. (You already know who you are.) When their suggestions and markups come back, then I’ll make a version suitable for an editor or agent to look at. That will include writing a five-page synopsis, since editors like ‘sample-chapter and synopsis’ submissions.
My writing process works pretty well, at least up until that point. It’s the selling process that needs a lot of work.