I am now in the revision phase of my story writing. With all four books "written" and the first published I need to make sure everything flows and makes sense. And that I don't sound like a four year old as I write. Here are a few things I'm doing to make sure my novels are very polished before I let them loose on their own.
1)Reread the story. This sounds sort of redundant, after all, you wrote the darn thing. But sometimes you get your thoughts down and think you are good and coherent and then you realize that thought doesn't belong as you reread the story. I had one segment I just thought was too contrived and "why would my characters fall for that!" so I rewrote the section. But I found it because I just read through it like a reader would.
2) Check your language, punctuation and spelling. This harkens back to your school days and the English teacher berating you for not doing just that. But if you want your novel to look professional, and you don't have an editor or publishing house, you need to put your best foot forward.
3) Check your facts. I realized I had renamed something in the first book and now I need to go back and make sure it matches in the next three books. Just bad form to get the name wrong in your own book. But that goes with all the facts. At the end of the second book I had six guards to start with and suddenly there were two dozen. How did that happen? So I needed to adjust.
4) Read it out loud. This was my husband's idea. Something might look fine as you type it, but when you say it out loud, sometimes you notice mistakes. I have caught several errors this way.
Mostly, just make sure your story, which you have worked so hard on writing, is polished. You want readers to enjoy your story, not be stuck on your mistakes.
Happy writing!
