Yay! You made it. You completed your major edits for the second - less shitty - draft, and then you did your scene edits. Now, you have a manuscript with lots of ink in the margins. What do you do next?
The final draft!
This is the draft where you address the smaller edits, the line edits, and catch anything that hasn't been caught before. Are there still inconsistencies? Does the tone still feel off in any place? Does this line to be tweaked?
And, speaking of tweaking lines, this is also the draft where you obsess over the first line. That's right, that magical and weighty first line. It's important.
As Luke Wilson once said in one of my all-time favorite movies, Alex and Emma:
"You want the first sentence to set the tone, grab the reader, and take them into the story."
After these nit-picky things are taken care of, and you're happy with the novel as it is, you're ready to pass it on to other eyes. Send it off to some trusted beta readers, get insights from sensitivity readers, or even shop it around to literary agents.
Best of luck in your writing! If you have any questions, submit them to the contact box on my website to be chosen for the next Ask Lennon question.
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