Novel Writing 101 - A Guide to the Creative Writing, Rewriting and Self-Editing of Your First Novel

1. Novel writing 101 promo skillshare: novel writing one No. One is a step by step guide to the writing, polishing and editing of your first novel. The class begins with a look at how you should go about writing your first draft, where the focus is very much upon writing, quickly writing in a structured and organized manner following the rules of your books. John, the setting of daily writing targets and the general philosophy that your first draft doesn't have to be perfect. The next part of the class looks at the rewriting of that first draft or the polishing of your manuscript. In this section, I also cover the rules of writing and the elements of a story. The final part of the class looks at the whole important editing of your book, and here I consider the four different types of editing that every novel should go through before being published. Namely the self editing of your book, the substantive editing of your book, the copy editing of your book and finally, the proof reading of your book. The class thing concludes by taking and in depth flute at the process you will need to follow if you are unable to afford professional editors novel writing 101 really is a must watch course if you are currently writing your first work of fiction and will even be of interest if you happen to be writing a non fiction book as well. So why don't you enroll in the class today and learn how to write, rewrite and edit your first novel? 2. WRITING - An Introduction to the Writing Process: this module is concerned with the writing process from your initial idea right through to completing your first draft and how to get there as quickly as possible. You'll need to write regularly every day, if possible, but you're also going to need to write quickly. 3. WRITING - The Importance of Writing Quickly: it is common sense that if you are able to write regularly and quickly, you'll become more productive and will be able to self published multiple books each year. Traditional published authors may only have been expected to write one book per year, but there is no reason My self published authors cannot release 4 to 6 new books every year . Some full time self published daughters are releasing considerably more titles than that. I'm writing productively in this way. All comes down to two main variables. One, the amount of time that you have available to actually sit down and write. And two how many words you are able to write during each allocated period. It is simple maths, but it is very important that we are fully aware of this formula. I realized that you may not have as much control over the first variable in the formula as you would like, depending upon whether or not you have a full time job. Although planning when and where you write will certainly allow you to allocate more time to your writing than you may previously have thought possible. However, the second factor how many words you are able to write during each allocated period is very much within your control. The ability to write quickly has a huge impact on how many books you are able to write each year. And if you are able to sell, publish more books than it gives you more opportunities to cross, promote, offer lead magnets and give you a better chance of becoming discovered. So now that we have established that writing quickly is important, the question is, how do you write fast without having to compromise on quality? 4. WRITING - The Factors that have Increased the Speed of My Writing: I have found that a number of factors have considerably increased the speed at Wish I right without having any negative effect on the quality of my writing. Those factors are as follows thoroughly researching my sub John or niche as well as my story. Before I put pen to paper, creating characters and setting up locations before I begin writing, going from being a pensar to a plotter distraction, free writing, the setting of daily writing targets and having the confidence that after writing my first draft, the next stage is rewriting, reworking and polishing my manuscript. But perhaps the most important factor of all was first purchasing and then learning how to use screw dinner. 5. WRITING - The Must have Application for All Self published Authors: one of the best pieces of advice I can give you when it comes to increasing your writing. Productive ity is to purchase a copy off Scriven ER. In my opinion, Scriven A is one of the four key financial investments that every self published author should consider making. The others being the professional editing of your books. Professional cover design and the building often author, website and a mailing list at $45 for Mac users on only $40. For Windows users, it is by far the least expensive of the four financial investments. Nonetheless, Scriven ER is a writing tool that will save you valuable time in all aspects of your writing, whether that being researching your book, the creating of characters, the setting of scenes plot outlining, distraction, free writing and in the meeting of word count targets. And that is just in the idea to first draft stage of writing your book. Scribbler can also do a lot more, including the compiling of your books into many different eBook formats. Since I took the time to learn how to use Scriven a properly, I have Britain regularly. I have written quickly, and I have written with purpose, and I have no doubt a tool that Scrivener has helped play a huge role in me becoming a more productive writer. If we have a look at those different factors that I mentioned earlier, I shall now go through each point in turn, and I will also briefly describe how I used scrivener to put them into practice. 6. WRITING - The Importance of Researching Your Book and the Rules of the Genre: the first factor I mentioned was about researching your book as well as your knee show. John Scrivener has a whole area built into the application, which is set aside for your research. Here you are able to say text images, websites and even videos to help you organize the research of your book. But it should also be the place where you organize research of yours, Young Ornish, because before you begin writing your book, you'll need to know your audience. And who exactly is your ideal reader In nonfiction? This may seem obvious as you are going to want to solve your readers particular problem well, problems that are associated with your knee. For example, If your book is all about how to raise chickens in your backyard, you need to know who is going to buy this book on what their specific problems are, so that you can then solve those problems and keep your readers satisfied. Perhaps this is not so obvious with fiction, but readers of a certain genre also expect certain things toe happen in their stories. These are known as the rules of the genre, and you will break them at your peril readers of the particular gene will expect certain conventions, such as red herrings in a murder mystery or a more handsome rival suitor in a romance. And they also expect obligatory scenes in the novels they read. For example, the hero at the mercy of the villain is an obligatory scene in the thriller genre. The happily ever after seen is an obligatory scene at the end of a romance, and, of course, a dead body showing up is a must have seen near the beginning of a murder mystery. But there are also more subtle aspects that you should bear in mind. For example, if you were writing a Children's book and your main protagonist is 11 years old, be aware that Children of 12 years and upwards are likely to give your book and miss as the teenage mindset. Maybe that your story is just too babyish for them. You really should be aware of thes rules before you begin writing. But the question is, where do you find these rules for your particular genre or even sub genre, where there are some resources that you confined by searching on Google? But at the end of the day, the best way to know and understand the rules For your particular John is to be a prolific reader in your sub genre, and, in my opinion, that is the best way that you can. Research with your ideal reader will expect from your book before you begin writing it, as well as researching your knee show genre. You will, of course, need to research your own book or story in order to make it more authentic for a nonfiction book. Quite apart from the obvious of acquiring a substantial knowledge of your topic, it may be that you need to research case studies and or anecdotes to back up. Your points will quote other experts in their opinions on a particular subject. You will, of course, need to research that your facts and figures are correct. And make sure that you are up to date with the latest trends, tactics and best practices in your industry. Meanwhile, getting your facts right is Justus important within fiction, as this will add authenticity to your novel and make it far more believable. If your thriller includes a black ops soldier using state of the art weaponry, you'd better be certain that you have researched exactly how that weaponry looks, sounds and smells, because you can rest assured that there will be those among your hard core thriller readers who will know and will be waiting to pick you up on any errors that you make. In their review of your book on Amazon, readers could be especially picky about an author getting their facts right in certain John , such as thrillers, sci fi and fantasy. And heaven forbid if you get something wrong in historical fiction. So it is up to you the author, to research the Minute I and ensure that your book is as authentic as you can possibly make it. I went to such lengths to make sure that I got everything authentic in my time school Siris of novels that I decided to write nonfiction books and even online courses based on the research that I made. Perhaps this was a little bit overkill, but it meant that I was able to write the historical scenes in my novels with a great deal more confidence, and I was also able to write them a lot quicker than if I was worried about getting my facts straight. All the time. Your research for fiction should also include the settings in your book as well as the creation of your characters. And I actually set up my research folder in Scrivener to include sub folders entitled General Research Characters and Settings. 7. WRITING - Researching Characters and Settings: When writing fiction, I find a way the information I have gathered relevant to my story within the General Research folder in Scrivener while in the Settings folder. I shall actually file the locations for each scene in the book and in my character folder, I shall include each character that appears in the story, with a label for recurring characters in the Siri's and new characters that only appear in that particular novel. Scrivener has a great feature called split screen, which allows you to view a researched item for example, the interior of a room where your scene is taking place in one pain, and the manuscript where you are writing the scene in another pain and you can either split the screen horizontally or vertically. This means you are able to see an image of your setting as you are actually writing the scene, which I find to be really useful when I'm describing a scene. However, it is, of course, important that you remember all of your senses when writing about a particular setting, as well as describing what your character's ca NSI. You should describe what they can hear, smell and even touch as well an important point to remember is that the detailed descriptions of the locations and characters that you store in Scrivener is as much for your benefit as it is for the stories. It is important that you know everything about the characters, but not necessarily that the reader needs to know the characters and locations in such depth. Use only what you need for this story from these detailed descriptions in your research folder. You may well use MAWR in later books in the Siri's. But don't be guilty of just copying or your research into your novel. Just because you have taken the time to find out about all the interesting stuff, you should only ever pick out what is important in the telling of that particular scene in your story. I also find that the split screen feature in Scrivener can also help the relationship with the characters and their settings, for example, how a character interacts within a particular scene 8. WRITING - The Importance of Outlining Are You a Pantser or a Plotter?: The third factor I mentioned was going from being a pensar to a plotter. And I believe this has played a big part in me being able to increase the speed that wish I right. A pansa is a nanowrimo term, which means that you fly by the seat of your pants when you're writing your novel. Now. Although I was never quite a complete pensar, I was by no means a plotter either. I was probably something in the middle. A plant, sir, if you will. But it was only when I became less of a pansa on more of a plotter that I saw my writing productivity shoot up A story that is not outlined may well end up as a rambling, muddled young. The lacks pace and direction if it even gets completed, that is, I now strongly believe that the quickest way towards writing a completed book is by outlining it first. And this is equally true of both fiction and nonfiction. I begin the outlining of my book by writing a synopsis of the book which gives an overview of the plot as well as information about the major characters. From this synopsis. We should only be a few paragraphs long. I then try and condense the heart of my story into a couple of sentences. This is known as the Stories pitch, also known as an elevator pitch. 9. WRITING - Why an Elevator Pitch is Still Good Practice: the term elevator page is based on the concept that it should be possible to sell the idea of your book to a publisher in the time it takes for an elevator to reach its destination. As a self published author, you're probably not going to need to pitch your story to any potential publishers. Nonetheless, it is still good practice to create an elevator pitch for your book, and it will help when you come to write a description of your book for the promotional copy on your book sales page. A good pitch should consist of an opening hook, followed by a couple of sentences to build on that hook. It is quite hard to achieve and will probably take you some time until you have nailed it. Interestingly, many writers find it easier to write a pitch based on the original synopsis of a story rather than the completed story itself. And you can always come back and modify your pitch if the story changes too much. In the meantime, the most important reason to write your pitch before you actually begin writing your book is that if you are not able to quickly describe your story, in this way, then the chances are that your idea isn't going to really work as a story. Once you have written your pitch, it is also a good idea to learn it off by heart. As I said before, you probably won't need to sell your story toe a book publisher. But when friends, family and colleagues asked you about your story, you'll be able to coherently tell them the heart of the story in a couple of sentences, rather than rambling on for ages and not making a lot of sense. This is actually extremely important for a new author who is just starting out and has not yet got a mailing list of readers and hasn't developed a street team. If your friends, family and colleagues buy into your book at an early stage, they may well be invested in the success of your book. And indeed, the success of you is a self published author, and some of these people could well form the basis of your future street team. Once you have finished both the synopsis and pitch for your book, the next step is to create a detailed outline off your book 10. WRITING - Mapping Out Your Scenes and Chapters: based on your initial idea, your research characters and settings, as well as the synopsis and pitch, you should begin mapping out the scenes or chapters of your book for my nonfiction books. I actually use mind mapping software for this task, but for my fiction, I create a sub folder within my research folding scrivener food outline. And then I set about writing a summary of what each scene is going to entail from the beginning of the book until the end. Throughout this process, I ensure that there are enough exciting incidents to move the story along scene by scene, leading to an eventual climax. Once every scene in my book for sub chapter for nonfiction has Bean sufficiently outlined. I am at last ready to begin writing that first draft. It may have taken quite a bit of time to get to this point, but I know that I shall easily make that time up and much more through the writing of a focused first draft 11. WRITING - Distraction Free Writing: the next factor I mentioned distraction. Free writing was also quite an important factor for me as I found that I was always stopping to check emails were applying to instant messages or even researching something relevant to my story in Google. Now the SIM plants to this problem is, of course, to come off line and avoid all of those distractions, which I highly recommend you do. But Scrivener takes this one step further by having a mode called the full screen composition moat the blocks out everything else and just let you write on a blank piece of paper. With no other distractions at all, you are literally left alone with your words. What's more, you do not have to worry about formatting your text a tool Scriven and deals with styles, fonts, margins in dense etcetera, etcetera later on. Within its compile feature, all you have to be concerned with is getting your words down on paper as quickly as possible. 12. WRITING - Setting Daily Writing Targets: The setting of daily writing targets is also an important habit to get into as it gives you a mini gold to achieve each day, and these many objectives soon add up the writing target that you set should be realistic and based on a number of things, the time that you have allocated for your writing, the speed of your typing and, of course, how quickly you are actually able to write your story. I suggest that you begin by setting a target that you feel is totally achievable and then slowly but surely increasing that target over time until you reach a word count that is more challenging but still very doable. And once you have reached your optimal world count and are achieving it day after day, you will be surprised and no doubt delighted to discover how quickly that first draft is getting written. Now, Scrivener has a number of tools built in to help you achieve your word count targets, you are able to toggle between project statistics and the text statistics from the current document that you are writing in and also project targets 13. WRITING - The Importance of Project Statistics: the project Statistics feature shows you the statistics for your entire manuscript as well as the statistics for the document, usually a sub chapter in nonfiction. On a scene in fiction that you're currently working on. You have shown the number of words that you have written for both, as well as the number of characters in the number of pages for paperback and print. The text statistics from the current document then go into further detail as well as showing the words and characters. It also shows you the number of paragraphs, the number of lines on the word frequency, which is a great feature to make sure that you are not using a particular word too many times in one scene. 14. WRITING - The Importance of Project Targets: the project targets feature shows you the word count target that you have set up for your entire manuscript and also for that particular session with a cool looking progress bar graphically showing you the progress you have made for both. I find that this Progress bar helps to hold me accountable to what I have set out to write in both that session and for my entire book. However, if the project target feature in scrivener is not hard core enough for you, then you might want to check out the website, right or die, which aims to eliminate writer's block by providing consequences for procrastination and rewards for accomplishment. Scrivens project target works just fine for me, but it might be that the more extreme encouragement that right or die provides will work better for you. 15. WRITING - Remember the First Draft Doesn't Have to Be Perfect: The final factor was having the confidence in knowing that after writing the first draft the next stages polishing my manuscript, don't expect your first draft to be perfect. Just write the words as quickly and as spontaneously as you can. Don't worry if your words are too simple or if you are repeating words, or if you're not 100% sure with your fax. Things like this could be checked and revised when you rewrite your manuscript later. Wrong. And what I mean by this is that you should concentrate on getting the words written down as fast as you can in the full screen composition mode, of course, without having to worry about it being perfect. I find that this mindset is the most effective way of eliminating the dreaded writer's block, because I know that if I just write and let it flow that once I have completed the first draft, I'm still going to go back to rewrite, revise and polish. But I have written and Scriven Ercan even help out here as it provides a great facility for making labels Status is and document notes so that you are able to tell your future self in revision, moat or writing collaborator, for that matter what you were trying to say, Well, what needs to be researched, etcetera, while you were in full blow writing that first draft? 16. POLISHING - So What Exactly Do I Mean by Polishing?: So what exactly do I mean by polishing? Well, basically, I mean the reworking, revising and rewriting of your first draft. This is the stage where you turn that rough manuscript into an actual book. This is where you polish your writing so hard that you can see your reflection in it. 17. POLISHING - The Rewriting of Your First Draft: in this video, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss my own process for rewriting, revising and reworking the first draft of the manuscript. Personally, I don't go back to the first draft for at least a couple of weeks after I finished writing it. I know from experience that if I try to rewrite a first draft straight away, that I'm still too close to the original and I probably won't be as ruthless with my revision of the manuscript. Once a couple of weeks have passed, I begin by reading each seen through or chapter in the case of nonfiction when I check the notes that I've left myself within scrivener, So I checked. My facts are correct consistency with other books in the same Siri's names, places, etcetera and whatever else I may have flagged up while writing the first draft. And then, once I have done that by you Scrivens compile, feature toe out put the manuscript as a PdF, which I condemn print out in the compilation options. I ensure that the manuscript has been formatted with a large margin to write, noticing that the text is set to a large, legible fund, and that's every scene or chapter for nonfiction begins on a new sheet of paper. Then once I have my manuscript in hand, I go to work on it with a red pencil pain, and I basically go back through the opening chapters of the book. Now that I know exactly how the book has ended and rewrite the story, I'm no longer starting from scratch. At this point, I know things about the plot, about the characters and their internal and external conflicts that I did not know when I started writing the book. I have hindsight, and so I'm able to go through the book and make it much better. It is quite a natural process, I suppose. 18. POLISHING - With One Eye on the Rules of Writing: at the same time as I'm improving my story, making corrections, rewriting scenes and getting lots of red ink all over the pages. I also keep an eye on the rules of good writing. I check my grammar and spelling my voice and style for nonfiction, the voice of each of the characters. Perfection. I check that the narrative flows well from chapter to chapter or scene to scene that the book is structured well and that each and every word counts. I tried to be clear and concise with my writing, and, of course, I try to read the book from the readers perspective. Am I missing out important information that the reader is not aware off? Have I added too much information that is not necessary? I remove repetition. I call all those words that I'm guilty of, including in my first drafts, such as that had really so went going, actually as just etcetera and the over use of the verb Toby, especially in fiction. I avoid using the passive voice too often, and, of course, I keep a lookout for cliches, adjectives and adverbs 19. POLISHING - And Another Eye on the Elements of a Story: when writing fiction, I will also make sure that all the elements of the story are in place. The opening hook, the middle build, the ending payoff that my story has an inciting incident which causes change for my protagonist that there is a crisis moment, the climax and finally a solution. I check that I've followed the rules of my John. I make sure that I have created believable characters with whom the reader can identify with. I checked that my protagonists have plenty of floors while my antagonised so have redeeming qualities, and I challenge myself as to why the character has acted in a particular way and what is their motivation. I also check that my prose is well written that seems to describe through the characters using all five of their senses and not just what they see, and I try to describe things in an original way. I look at the dialogue of the recurring characters in the series and make sure that they are true to themselves. And I suppose most of this either comes naturally in my writing nowadays, or I'm setting out to do it at the outlining stage before I begin writing. However, here in the rewriting stage, I keep an eye open that I am achieving these elements unless I'm doing so in an original way and in a way which is consistent with both my characters on with the previous books in the Siri's. But at this stage, it really is just keeping an eye out that I'm following the rules, so to speak. Mainly, I'm concerned with making my story as good as it can possibly be. 20. EDITING - The Importance of Editing: So perhaps you have written the first draft of your book as quickly as you could, and then you went back through it and rewrote large parts of it, revised other parts and have basically polished that manuscript to such a degree that you can see your face in it. And you're pretty sure that you now have a best seller on your hands, all ready to be published? Well, think again. It might be the your pretty pleased with yourself right now and are a little amazed how you have transformed that rough and ready first draft into the masterpiece that sits before you . But the chances are no matter how good and experience the right to you are that your potential masterpiece is still some way off being ready for publishing Your book now needs to be edited, and this is possibly the single most important stage involved in self publishing. A book editing concern. A good book into a great book on a book that makes Field sailed here and there into a best seller. If you have read my short Siris of block posts on the four key investments, every self published authors should make you will already know that editing is the third of those four key investments. You will also be aware that editing is the most expensive of the four key investments by quite some way. But before we get onto the financial aspects of editing, let's take a look at what exactly I mean by the editing of your book. 21. EDITING - The Different Types of Editing: There are a number of different types of editing that your book should go through before it is ready to be published. The process for my book is this follows. I begin the editing of my book myself editing it. I then proof, read the book by then send the self edited manuscript to my substantive editor by then rewrite the manuscript based on the suggestions made by the substantive editor, I proof read the book again. I then send the book to my copy editor. I correct the errors that have been flagged up by the copy editor. And then I do a final proof read of the book before sending it to my beater Readers. As you can see, this process involves four distinct types of editing, two of which I actually do myself and one of them that I do at least three times. Let's go through each of those four types of editing in detail 22. EDITING - Self editing Your Book: the first of the four types of editing is self editing. You may well be wondering why you need to self edit your work. If you were just about to pay for one or more professionals to edit your work, The reason is simple. If you self at its your careless mistakes and ensure that your story is following all the rules of writing and storytelling that you yourself are already aware off, then there won't be so much noise that interferes with the suggestions and corrections made by the editor, which you were not aware off and that you can now learn from when yourself editing your manuscript. You should try to correct errors of grammar and spelling mistakes, make sure to show and not tell. Get rid of unrealistic dialogue and dialogue that is inconsistent with recurring characters . Make sure your scenes of chapter ending hooks delete unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. Get rid of repetitions and any unnecessary words such as that. So, however, actually etcetera, check the point of view errors on and check your tenses only once you're satisfied that you are handing over your best work. Should you finally give the manuscript to the substantive editor 23. EDITING - Substantive Editing: probably the most intensive form of editing is substantive editing. A substantive editor is almost like your own brighter coach who will evaluate your manuscript based on problems of structure, coherence and consistency, while ensuring that the writing is well organized and flows easily. The substantive editor will help you focus on what is working and what is not working. Within the book. Paragraphs may be rewritten, condensed or expanded, revisions will be suggested, and some entire scenes may be deleted. You may be surprised and even a little saddened when you get the edited manuscript back from the substantive editor, and you realize that perhaps your book was not quite so perfect as you thought it waas. But you mustn't get disheartened. Nor take offense. This is the time to learn from the editing and become a better and more professional writer from the experience. 24. EDITING - Copy Editing: it is important to realize that copy editing is not the same thing is proof reading and it is quite a separate stage of the editing process. While a proof reader is primarily concerned with corrected errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar, a copy editors job is to polish your language. They look at style, repetition, word usage jargon. They will improve clumsy sentences, removed passive phrasing and check the consistency in the use of pronouns and tenses. Basically, they are there to make your writing sparkle. A copy editor will usually make suggestions using the track changes feature in a word processor so that you can then make the corrections yourself. 25. EDITING - Proofreading: proof reading is the lightest form of editing, and it is a process to make sure minor errors are corrected, such as grammatical errors, errors of punctuation, spelling errors and typos. I proof read the books myself and at least three times in total. I first proof, read the book after I've self edited the book before giving it to my substantive editor. I believe that is very important to self edit and proof. Read the book yourself before sending off your manuscript so that any stupid errors are removed before the professional editor begins work on the book. After reworking the book based on the feedback from my substantive editor, I would then proof, read the book thoroughly, once more before giving it to my copy editor. Then, after correcting the errors flagged up by my copy editor, I should perform a final proof read before sending the book to my beater readers. And I suppose I also do a cursory proof read of my book while checking for formatting errors when I'm testing my e book on different E reader devices later on. Likewise, when I publish a paper back version of my book, I will also do a final proof read off the proof copy that Amazon sent to me. So pre freed ing is certainly a very important part of editing, even though you'll probably do most of it yourself. The question is, though, who is going to do your substantive editing and your copy it Issing, and how much is this going to cost you? 26. EDITING - What You Can Do if You Can't Afford an Editor?: new self published authors often find themselves in a Catch 22 position. It is at the start of their career that new authors are most likely going to need professional editing services. However, this may also be the time when authors do not have the budget to pay for these services or a reluctant to, because they are worried that they may never see a return on their investment. Ironically, as you become a more experienced and better writer instinctively taking on board the advice from previous editing, you're less likely to need a substantive editor than you were at the start of your career that you may well be more inclined to use thumb because you'll know full well the value that a professional editor brings to your finished product. My advice is to try and use a copy editor for both fiction and nonfiction, and two certainly use a substantive editor for fiction. That is, if you are financially in a position to pay for their services. However, if you have no financial means of paying for a professional editor and you are unable to barter for their services, then do not despair. A lot of first time writers find themselves in this exact same position. What you will have to do, though, to make up for this are the following four things. One. Put yourself editing into overdrive to ask a friend, a colleague or a family member to make a substantive edit. Three. Ask a different friend, a colleague or a family member to make a copy, edit and four proof read proof. Read proof read. The first thing you'll need to do is put yourself editing into overdrive. If you're not able to afford the services of professional editors and especially the services of a substantive editor, then you will have to spend the time on the hard slog for performing an extensive self edit of your work. You'll need to do everything I suggested earlier in the course and a whole lot more. But before you even begin your work as an editor. And yes, it is a totally different skill set to that of a writer. I strongly suggest that you check out Sean Coins story grid, which is by far the best information I've found anywhere on the Net concerning self editing . I particularly like Shawn's method off dissecting your story scene by scene within an Excel spreadsheet and seeing on a micro level. If each of your scenes are doing what they're supposed to be doing in the telling of your story, the second thing you need to do is ask a friend, colleague or a family member to make a substantive edit. Preferably, this person should be an intelligent professional that you can rely upon to give you honest and constructive feedback. This person should be someone who reads a lot, and by that I mean a book, a day kind of person who is instinctively over the years, learned what it is that makes a good book. Ideally, it should be someone that reads a lot of books in the genre that you are writing in. Now this person probably will be able to tell you with some conviction if the book does not work but might not be able to tell you why it does not work. Which is, of course, why you would ideally be paying a professional. However hopefully coupled with your extensive self editing, your book may have improved enough that he can go into the next stage, which is asking a different person to make a copy edit of your manuscript. This person needs to be a different person to the one who made the substantive fit it and ideally, would be a retired English professor or even an English teacher. Or else a professional who needs to have an eye for detail in their job, such as a translator, basically someone who has a very good understanding of the English language. And the final thing you will need to do is proof. Read proof, read, proof, read. Obviously, if you have not been able to afford the services of a copy editor who may have noticed certain common errors and typos that others may miss, the emphasis is on you to be even more thorough in your final proof read. 27. Your Class Project: your projects for the novel writing 101 Class ISAS follows one. Set a realistic daily writing target based on the amount of time you can allocate to your writing and your current right and speed to over the course of a two week period. Try to gradually increase your writing speed through techniques such as distraction, free writing, Pomodoro AS and the setting of writing targets for each session. Three. Note down exactly how many words you have written in the days one through 14 for post the number of words for each day's writing into the Projects Gallery together with the total word count and the average daily word count during that two week period and five, you could also let the class No, if you are happy with the results, what challenges you faced and how you intend to increase your writing speed in the future. Okay, so I hope you have enjoyed the class, and I look forward to seeing your class project in a couple of weeks time