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But when you have a rough draft it is time to go back and spend time with your story alone. It is not time for sharing the story yet. My theory is no readers until you have a fully edited story. Not your rough draft. If you hand off a rough draft to critique partners they aren't going to be able to help you well enough. You'll get more help along rhe way if you have off well written stories. I want to share here that a rough draft is not good. But a rough draft is a completed story you can now make better. I usually go through my stories 5 to 6 times before I share. Fatiguing your critique partners isn't good. I think Inhave been guilty of this mostly because my stories were long. So you do have to explain to critique partners what you need. A quick read through or finding every typo and error along the way. So when it's the best cleanest copy you have hand it off. But you do know you'll have to edit it again...and again. My first manuscript I actually edited through 9 times wiry three major story changes. Those required me to change things all the way through the story 3 times. So there is a lot of work that may go into edits. Sometimes the break from a story can be good so that you can edit thru your story with a fresh mind. It will be easier to have that bit of a break. Even a couple of weeks is a good thing. Hint: you want critique partners to be tough on you and ask about things. This will give you a better story in the end. Some of you may need to hire a writing coach is this is new for you. Some can be pricey. Other less but certainly where it can be afforded a really good thing. I have several friends who do this and could be a huge help if you are interested. BUT work thru your story for correcting what has been marked as concerning. YOU may not make every correction but some will need to be fixed. I get a lot of help from allowing my word narrator read to me or reading out loud. I catch more errors that way. Tracking is excellent for keeping up with where things need to be changed or fixed. I highly recommend getting use to this if you are not familiar with it because most editors will utilize this. People sometimes cringe when it is suggested to cut a scene. But sometimes if a scene isn't pushing the story forward it had to go. But save it. Maybe part of it can be utilized elsewhere or even in another story. As I look at each scene I try to read through and ask myself why this scene matters to the story. If I cut it what would it change? If nothing let it go. Or I have pulled the gist out of a scene to add the gist into the chapter before or after so I could.let word count go. I write too long. When you have cleaned up all of what critique partners have suggested. Then read again and see about the polishes for perfect. This means tedious one sentence at a time reading and cleaning up further. And then read through it again. Now get to it!!
