A lot of people think that writing a novel is a simple process. You just get a few ideas, you write them down, then you force yourself to write a linear story line. While it’s true that a lot of books are written that way, it is certainly not the only way. You may have heard of literary agents. You may have even heard of query letters. You may even have heard of people who want to be authors or who want to become famous. Well, it takes a lot of work to be a successful author or to have someone recognize your talent. What follows is a general overview of the creative writing process. It isn’t meant to be exclusive to novel writing; you may find it helpful when thinking about other creative writing projects you have in mind.
The Rough Draft
The first step in the creative writing process is to just write. No matter what kind of project you have in mind, no matter how much experience you have in writing, you have to start from scratch and put content on paper. This step is very important because it helps you get rid of all the unnecessary clutter that can otherwise cloud your mind while you are writing. If you have already started plotting and outlining, great! But don’t feel bad if you haven’t. You can still use this step to get everything you need to know in order to put together a full novel. This step should not be rushed. Take your time with it. At the end of the day, you can always go back and edit your work, so it is imperative that you take the time to do it properly. When you have something that you feel is complete, you can move on to the next step.
The Second Draft
The second step is to read what you have written and to edit it. Now, we aren’t talking about copyediting here. We are talking about serious, substantive editing. When you have a rough draft that you feel is ready for some polishing, you should definitely go through it and make all the necessary changes. This step is very important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it allows you to fix all the mistakes you made in the first draft. But more importantly, it allows you to add more meaning into your work. When you are editing, you should be looking for ways to improve the tone of your writing, to make it more interesting, and to give it more cohesion. When you have edited your work to the point where you feel it is ready, you can move on to the next step.
The Final Draft
The third step is to read through the work one last time before you submit it. This is very important! When you have edited your work to the point where you think it is perfect, you should definitely go back and read it through once more. This step is crucial because it allows you to see all the aspects of your work that you may have overlooked. Sometimes, we as humans are very busy, and we may not see everything until we read an entire piece of work multiple times. It is important to go back and re-read everything, even if it is something as simple as a title or an introductory paragraph. When you have gone through the entire piece of work once more, you can feel confident that you have captured everything necessary. At this point, you should also proofread it one last time, just to ensure that you haven’t made any spelling errors. When you have finished adding all the necessary details, you can get a fresh pair of eyes to look over your work and tell you if you have made any mistakes. If everything looks good, you can move on to the final step.
Now, this should be a pretty self-explanatory step. You have finished your work, and you should now move on to the next step. However, there may be instances where you want to show your work to some specific individuals or organizations before you move on to the next step. This may be because you want some feedback or because you want to see how your work measures up against some other works you have read. Whatever the case may be, when you have finished your work, it is time to move on to the next step.
The Submitting Process
The final step is to submit your work to agents, publishers, or whomever you plan to showcase it to. When you are searching for an agent, make sure to query them. This means that you send them your work in the form of a query letter. A query letter is a short letter, typically a few sentences long, that you send to potential agents/editors to gain interest in your work. It is very important to query agents, rather than sending your manuscript directly to them. This is because agents have loads of manuscripts to go through, and they don’t have the time to give your work the attention it deserves. Therefore, by letting them know that you have something to offer, you may be able to secure representation quickly simply because they have to take you seriously. When you have secured representation, it is time to celebrate!
While this was a general overview of the creative writing process, it wasn’t all that much information. Hopefully, this article will help you understand the basic steps involved in writing a novel and the various aspects that you need to consider. Even if you don’t end up doing any of the creative things mentioned above, you can still use this information to become a better writer. Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your thoughts, and I hope this information is of some help to you.