How to turn your messy first draft into something actually worth reading

What's up, my friend Abby? And welcome back to Writer's Life Wednesdays, where we come together to help you make

your

story matter and

your

author dreams come true. If you clicked on this video, chances are you've written a book that is incredible, seriously, it's a huge accomplishment and you should be very proud of yourself, but you're probably also thinking what do I do with it now? Chances are, your

first

draft

will be a disaster, and that's okay. First

draft

s aren't perfect, they're not supposed to be perfect, but the potential for greatness is there and that's why in today's video I'm going to share with you my revision process: how I take a

messy

, new

first

draft. or old, I revise it and

turn

it into a beautiful manuscript that I can feel safe sharing. the world, so if you have a first draft that has potential but you're not sure where to start, this video is for you, why your story matters?

Good question, what if I told you there was a science behind every great story? I only teach you how to write, I teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true, so my process is basically divided into five stages: revisions, line edits, comments, professional edits and proof

reading

before get into all this. First I want to talk about the importance of what I like to call decompression time, basically, which is the time between when you finish your first draft and when you start editing. I know you're excited to edit your first draft and

turn

it into

something

beautiful. but you can't jump into revisions right away, like as soon as you finish writing the first draft because you're too close to it, you've been so familiar with this manuscript that you won't be able to see it. objectively now it is technically impossible to look at your own writing 100 objectively because you wrote it, you will never see it exactly as a complete stranger will see it, but you can almost create that effect of strangeness, of unfamiliarity, distancing yourself from your first draft thus established. put it aside for a while, okay, when you finish writing, put it aside.

I usually put my first drafts aside for at least three or four months before diving into revisions just to give myself a better, clearer, more objective view of my own writing once it's unpacked. Time has passed and I feel a little less familiar with what I wrote. I can jump to the first stage, which is revising the first draft. Well, first things first. You can't start reviews without a strategy. Okay, you need a plan. It's like fixing. It's okay to build an old house and remodel it to make it look beautiful. You can't just start chopping it with an ax and see what happens.

You have to have a plan, an idea of ​​what you want the finished product to look like in order to get it. to that finished product, if you didn't take notes during the process of writing the story, don't worry, you can start taking notes now, you can start planning the result, the perfect and ideal finished product now, even if you have already written it . the first draft, so I like to start this process by asking myself some important questions about my story, what do I love about this story, why do I care about this story, what are the problem areas I know I'm going to find?

How do I want my characters to change throughout the story after I finish answering these questions? Write the answers, either in a notebook or in a Word document. I like to have it close to me when I'm going through the revision process so I can reference what the weaknesses are, what the strengths are and remember my final vision for this book, so I like to print my manuscripts and bind them. into three ring binders just to save myself. because of eye strain from looking at a screen because I spend so much time looking at a screen for work that I like to print out my manuscript and hold it in my hands.

There is also

something

about seeing your manuscript on paper that makes it seem much more flexible and capable of being changed and reworked, sometimes I will write a completely new scene on notebook paper and stick it in my binder between chapters or add an existing scene by writing in the back of the page and this space just gives me a lot more creative freedom to open my mind to new possibilities with this story and add things and cut things and expand scenes or add a new scene that wasn't there before. There is something much more liberating about having it on paper and being able to move everything around. over it and add notebook pages of new ideas that you just don't have that freedom within a Word document or within Scrivener, yet the revising stage of things is where I make my biggest adjustments to the plot and arcs.

However, I have to do this with older manuscripts because over the years I've really improved my outlining process and at this point I do it so strategically that I never need to do major rewrites in the first draft because I've already figured it out. those problems in the outlining process, so if you want to avoid having to write a completely new draft, a completely new manuscript, I recommend that you watch some of my videos on outlining, even if you don't do it as intensely as I do. Outlining is very useful and can save you so much time that it can save you from having to write a whole new book, basically because you solve those problems beforehand.

I know it sounds more tedious to have to figure these things out beforehand, but it's so much more. In my opinion, it's tedious to have to write a completely new manuscript, but regardless of whether you're a plotter, a underdog, or something in between, you should still have a strategic review process and ask yourself these questions, always try to strengthen your writing. Make your story stronger, ask yourself how can I make this more emotional and more engaging for my readers. Look for plot holes. Look for ways to increase the stakes for your characters. Take your time with this and even test ideas with trusted beta readers or critique partners now.

Once I've finished my review process and implemented all the changes I'm going to make to the story, it's time to move on to line editing. This is probably the least enjoyable part of the editing process, the part you have to go through. your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb and look for all the little things, like excessive passive voice and adverbs, weak words, continuity, spelling and grammar errors, these are all things that I don't necessarily pay attention to in the review process because I can't focus on everything at once, which is why I prefer this first-pass, second-pass editing method, because if I get distracted trying to make a sentence sound better, I may not realize that the entire scene doesn't work when editing lines when you're in the middle of the revision process, it's like decorating the house before the drywall goes up, okay it doesn't work with things that big, details first, second if you want a look deeper into my line editing process. and all the things I look for when I'm editing lines check out this video right here.

I also made a video on which 10-week words you should remove from your manuscript and what to replace them with and I'll link to that video in the corner too, so after I've gone through and cleaned up my manuscript as much as I can, it's time for feedback. You thought our books were all clean and ready to publish. No, no, not yet, first we have to be objective. opinions from trusted friends and beta readers and see if we can make this story even better. You've probably already noticed that that's the common theme here. What can we do to make this story better, more emotional, more engaging, more memorable if you keep wondering?

You will get answers to those questions, so find those few people in your life whose opinion you respect and get their feedback on your story. They don't even need to be writers. It's okay, they just need to understand your vision of this story and they need to do it. Be absolutely brutally honest with your bonus points if you're the type of person who would read this book. If you want more tips on how to find your ideal beta readers and what to ask them, watch this video here, my betas and I do. the best we can, but I also need professional help when it comes to editing.

There's

actually

a lot you can do yourself and there comes a time when you need the eye of a professional to make sure your book reads as well as possible, so I highly recommend it. find a professional editor to work with someone who understands your vision and her voice and can help you take your book to a whole new level of greatness. I also recommend working with a professional proofreader because again, they can only see so much and find what you're looking for so your editor will miss some things and that's why you need a proofreader, even your proofreader will miss some things because they're human and that's why I recommend that you proofread your book yourself at least twice before publishing it, but that's basically it.

Basically my entire process, from

messy

first draft to polished finished product, comment below right now and tell me what your process is like. I would love to know everything if it is published, how did you do it and if not? published, how do you plan to disseminate your work? I'd love for you to join the discussion in the comments below and hope you gained some value from listening to my process. Hit the like button if you liked this video and be sure. to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post videos writing and posting videos every Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community.

Also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take Storytelling to the next level. Not only is the Patreon community the best way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube, but it's also the only way to get access to my monthly live trainings where I go deeper and we explore different aspects of writing. and posts and much more so check out patreon.com abbyemens and check out all the amazing exclusive content I have for you until next week my friend keep going. I think that's where a lot of writers, especially new ones, make the mistake of focusing. too much into the plot and not enough into the characters and they think okay, I have to make something exciting happen, but it doesn't really matter because no one will care if they don't care about the characters, because I think a lot of people do too. with certain genres they don't say how