What to Do with your NaNoWriMo Novel Before Sending it out…

Professional Secrets from the Author of 75 Books

Okay, you finished the entire thing. That’s wonderful! Of course, there are a few steps necessary before you self-publish or try to get it professionally published.

Smoothing it out: First, read it over from start to finish. This may need multiple reads and certainly will take a few sittings. Of course, check for grammar and readability. But you’ll also find plot inconsistencies, places you changed your mind, characters who changed names, or certainly have clearer personalities at the story’s end than at the beginning. Basically, this is the time for you to apply the lessons you learned about your plot and characters and setting by the time you’d reached the end of the novel. Put them into your beginning scenes to make them stronger. To check for readability and overused words, reading it aloud, even in a mumbled monotone, is an old creative writing trick.

Grammar and style edit: When you have the novel content the way you want it, it’s time to grammar and style check it. One option is to hire a good line editor. Heck, you could find a story editor too if the story part didn’t work out as you wanted. Another option is computer checkers. Microsoft Word’s built-in grammar and spellcheck is excellent. So is Grammarly.com. My preference is…