Writing Tip: Premature Submission--Resist the Urge

I am so excited about the words I was able to draft on my work-in-progress last month. It was extremely satisfying to see my characters and plot coming together so nicely. I know I have a lot of revision coming up, but to me, that’s the really fun part, polishing it up before submission.

Unfortunately, some writers seem to want to skip the revision part and go straight to submission after NaNoWriMo. Some of the editors I know, and the agents I’m acquainted with, were talking last week about the deluge of submissions they get in December and how they know that it went straight from the drafting stage of NanoWriMo to their inbox and it’s sad because a lot of potentially wonderful, sellable stories were prematurely submitted and lost out on a great opportunity to impress.

So, this is my writing tip for you. Do not submit the manuscript you drafted during Nano. Take December and use it to revise and polish your novel, and when you are done, take a break from it. Send it out to readers, or let it rest over the holidays, while you enjoy the holiday season. Come back to it in January and revise and polish it again, and then maybe, just maybe, it will be ready for submission and will be the impressive story it was always meant to be.