What Happens After the First Draft?

Image thanks to TMAB2003 via Flickr.com

There is so much out there about how to write a novel. It seems like that’s the hardest part of writing: the actual writing.

But is it?

As NaNoWriMo approaches (That’s National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated), there are a million how-to books, webpages, PDFs, ebooks, essays (you get the idea) out there. “How to write a novel in a month,” “How to finish that first novel,” “How to outline your novel,” “How to write a novel in 30 days,” etc, etc.

But my problem with these sources is that most merely encourage a person to finish the first draft.

Don’t get me wrong–without a first draft, you don’t have a second draft or a final draft. For me, however, the first draft doesn’t take me nearly as long as the second or third draft do. (Or fourth or fifth.)

Why?

Because so much more time, effort…