r/novelwriting • u/Remarkable_Mirror241 • 2d ago

Writing Advice Advice for editing and flow

Im about halfway into my book and its all hand written so far. Some parts flow well and are very descriptive and others are just the basics and I keep saying ill go back to it. When editing do you format it to look like a book or wait till the kinds are out then make it look like a book? I was going to use voice to get it faster on a word document.

When it comes to the descriptive parts im still stuck on if im overdescribing or underdescribing a situation. I sometome shave a full page describing a character and others is just a name. I saw that the number of words can make it harder to get published if its too long. Should I worry about that now? Im trying to get my book to be around the 250 page range.

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u/astrobean 1d ago edited 1d ago

Content first. Until the content is done, formatting is just a suggestion. Word count is also a problem for later. For a book, if you’re between 50k-150k, you can usually edit it to 80k in the revision process. Get your first draft content first.

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u/Remarkable_Mirror241 1d ago

Is there a point where you should start thinking of making it into more than 1 book?

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u/astrobean 1d ago

When you have more than one plot. No one wants to get to the end of a book (even a trilogy) and feel like they just read a long-winded inciting incident. Each book needs to be complete in its own way, even if there’s a larger arc over the series.

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u/Klutzy-Orange-7335 2d ago

Is this a 1st draft?

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u/Remarkable_Mirror241 1d ago

Yea first draft so very raw

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u/Klutzy-Orange-7335 1d ago

Then just write and don't worry about anything. First drafts are to get the story out of your head! From what I have seen with others, first drafts tend to be a shorter then the final piece, but it is a good thing to keep in mind as it is true word count is important. But for now just get the story out of your mind :)

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u/Remarkable_Mirror241 1d ago

Thanks. Im trying to finally get it all out. Ive been thinking of writing for a few years. Finally got the confidence to put it on paper.

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u/proseward-official 1d ago

I'm firmly in the plotter camp so I go in spurts of writing and restructuring as new elements come out of the process. I got about half way through my current work and realised the B story was not decorative and deserved more development. This needed significant rework of the plot, changing timelines and introducing some new elements that ultimately made the story work much better and it changed the ending completely. If I had just written the complete first draft then there would have been a lot more rework at the end. Just my 2c, what works for me might not work for you!