OK, so you've written a story. Now what?
Read it out loud, either to yourself or some poor soul that hasn’t anything better to do with their time.
This will give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t. A word of warning, if it’s your first novel then very little of it will be salvageable. Best not to try.
I thought my first novel was a humdinger. A work of brilliant wit and master storytelling. Fortunately I paid someone to tell me different.
It wasn’t until I finished my fourth book that I had something that had the potential to be read. Then I made a big mistake. This was Due Diligence, my first Jenny Parker novel. I’d just finished writing it and was introduced to the crime fiction editor at Orion. He said he’d read it if I sent it to him. On the train coming back from London, I pressed the send button. I wish I hadn’t.
It taught me never to send out or publish a first draft. I never heard from him again and no wonder. The book began with Jenny on the toilet!! What was I thinking? The final version (two years and several versions later) had none of that in it and started what had been halfway through.
You only get one chance to impress a publisher or a reader. If you blow it, that’s them gone for ever. For ever. Think about it. If you started to read a book by D J Harrison and it was an unreadable stinker, would you be likely to seek out one of his later books and give him another chance? No? Of course you wouldn’t.
Publishing a first draft is always a mistake. Always.
What do I mean by a first draft? Well, you’ve written it, put it away, read it out loud and revised it. Then it’s a first draft.
When you can’t make it any better yourself you need an editor.
Believe me, you can’t edit your own work. It’s impossible. I’ve tried. There’s a blindness that afflicts a writer when reading their own work. After all, you know what you meant to say. You know all about the characters. You know everything. It’s impossible to be objective.
A good editor costs money but is an essential investment. Before you commit to that expense, I suggest that you pay for a critique. This will help to convince you that your novel is worth further time and attention. Or it might not. Both messages should be heeded. Especially the second one.
I think of my novels as ships. If someone looks at the whole vessel and decides that it’s ugly and unserviceable, there’s no point in my redecorating the captain’s quarters and hoping that will make things right, is there?
What about money, though? I already told you that editors cost money. But how much should you pay? Editors are a bit like lawyers. There’s nobody more expensive than a cheap lawyer, in my experience. Scrimp on the editor and you’ll end up with a shoddy book.
