by
Crymsyn Hart
…now what the heck do I do?
Well congratulations, the first think you need to do is take a moment and breathe. You did it. You made it to the end of the book. Bet you never thought you would because your characters wanted to keep talking until they were blue in the face. Well you finished the story and are left with the question of where do I go from here?
The first thing you want to do is think about editing. If you’re a first time writer, then you can think about hiring someone to edit the book for you. Of course that can cost a lot of money. Or maybe you have friend who is an English major and is good with grammar. Have them look it over. However you go about this, make sure you do your very best to polish the manuscript before submitting it to publishers or agents, depending on the route you want to go.
Polishing the manuscript of course is spell checking, punctuation mistakes, and even deleting some of the scenes you have written. Or adding them in. It all depends on where you are going with your book. Personally I put on Track Changes in Word when I start self-editing so I can see what I’m deleting. I normally end up cutting out more than what I put back in. I have a tendency to sometimes overwrite and then have to delete the repetition. But editing is hard work and takes time, then again so does working over a book to make it the best that you can before you send it off.
I warn you ahead of time.
Your brain will hurt when you are done.
Happy Editing.
