Now what?

As the new year has started you might either be exhausted from all these holidays or energized with good intentions.

Either way, after completing NaNoWriMo in November your work isn't done yet. You may have a first draft but don't make the mistake to publish it as is. Please, don't! A draft is a draft, and it needs serious polishing to become the shining gem it is supposed to be.

January is the perfect time to do this polishing as it's often ugly outside and you usually feel both drained of creativity and motivated to start the year fresh.
You probably haven't touched your work in about a month. So when you open the document again you likely will be surprised what you have achieved to write in November. You will see your story with a fresh set of eyes.
Now read, and read carefully.
As you go, catch all those typos and puctuation errors, reword where necessary, cut too long paragraphs or add to them where they are lacking. You will see, there is much to do.

Be critical, but don't butcher your story.

Get help when you're stuck or story blind. You will want to introduce your draft to your betas soon. Let their comments help you edit. Don't take their criticism too much to heart, but learn from them, accept and adapt. Remember: they want to help you, not harm you.
And by the end of it you will have an improved new draft.

Writing Exercise 006

It's time for my weekly writing exercise again. :D
This time I had to rewrite one of my favourite scenes, and I chose the series Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, because in my opinion one of the main characters deserved a different ending.

2016/01/20 – Rewrite your favourite scene from books/movies/TV/video games (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Ep 12 runtime 16:22 min)

Read my rewrite/fanfiction 'Finally There's Love' on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5794066