Hello!

I finished my second draft of my novel manuscript, and it feels amazing!

For Fics & Dip readers who are not writers: most books go through many, many drafts. This is not the first novel manuscript I've ever written, but it is the first I've seriously revised. I learned so much about myself and my editing process along the way, and I'm so proud of how much better the second draft is compared to the first draft.

When I mention to people I'm writing a novel, they often immediately asked, "When are you going to get it published?" Whether or if I get it published is something I can't control, but I do plan to revise this manuscript into the best version I can and then attempt to publish it traditionally. After two drafts, I know that I'm not ready yet to query agents (i.e., seek a literary agent to represent my work to editors).

My goal now is to do a third draft (much faster than my second draft, hopefully, now that I learned about some techniques I tried with draft two that did not work well for me), share it with beta readers, make any additional changes I need to, and then query. Most experienced folks I know recommend letting your manuscript breathe with a break between drafts. I've heard a few suggest that writers take a break of four weeks before diving into the next draft. However, I have a baby due any day now so I would rather not wait. We'll see how it goes with me taking a very brief break before getting to work on this novel again.

One of the biggest changes I know I need to make is reducing my word count. My first draft clocked in at 115,198 words. I cut quite a few scenes but added others to the second draft, which now stands at 116,285 words. My goal is much closer to 90,000 or at least under 100,000 words, so I have some serious cutting to do! In some cases, I'm glad I wrote certain scenes so I have the background information for myself as the author, but on further reflection it's more detail than the reader needs. In others, I know I need to tighten my writing and over-explanations to make each remaining scene better! I'm learning to enjoy this part of the writing process as I build the skills that I know will make a better book.

Thanks for following me on this journey!

Nicole

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