I’m currently editing the second draft of my first completed novel (not technically the first but the first that I felt ‘this is it’ when the last sentence wrote itself) and it’s a grind every time I do a draft, but it’s also exciting. I spent so long not wanting to look at the manuscript again, in case it was more garbage than I remembered, but once I pick it up I feel the ball rolling and the magic working itself.

One of the first things I do is focus on grammar, holes and persistent habits that only take away from the work. I put in notes for plot development or changes but don’t usually change anything major until I’ve ironed out most of the wrinkles. It makes me feel better about the manuscript when I start going through it again.

There are often little phrases or habits I do with my writing that I hate but don’t notice while I’m doing my first draft before I start editing. Most of them have to do with being unsure about myself or the character. ‘A little’ is currently my worst one and I hate it so much because it’s everywhere in my work and glaringly obvious. Deleting the majority of them only improves the writing and it makes me wonder if I’ll always do small, irritating things like that no matter how experienced I get with writing. Writing an imperfect manuscript is a milestone for me, though, because I was always too afraid to write anything ‘not good enough’ even though I knew full well that it’s the norm for things to need work. Letting go of that has been good in terms of just writing it. That’s what I’ve taken from reading some of the writing blogs here on WordPress is that you just need to write it. Too long have I been letting things slip through my fingers because I don’t want to ruin it by putting it on paper.

I’ll give an update on a later post about what my editing process is like and what I’ve learned about it through studying at university and doing my own research.

Just write it.