I let my completed novel sit unread for six weeks at the minimum. This allows me to completely forget any agendae I might have had regarding things I was "going to fix" and allows me to approach it as a reader would.

At this stage, I also prepare the notebook I’m going to need. I do it on the cheap by stapling recycled paper together, but spiral ones work too. I label pages: GENERAL, THEMES, TO LOOK UP/RESEARCH, SCENES TO ADD, SCENES REMOVED, PROBLEM SCENES, and PLOT INCLUSIONS BY CHAPTER NUMBER. Then I allocate a page for each chapter, per draft.

I keep detailed records on everything I take out and add to each draft, in case I want to add something I previously deleted or vice versa. Listing research needs by chapter number helps to know where to put facts once I know them. "Plot Inclusions By Chapter" is a list of all the new things I added since the first draft, since it’s hard for me to keep track of them out of the organic sphere of what I envisioned.

The purpose of my general read-through is to see how everything works together in a high-concept way. Is the pacing smooth? How is characterization? Are the scenes crafted properly? Are there any gaps in continuity? Plainly, is this a good story? Is it exciting? Do I care about the characters and what happens to them?

I try to resist making too many changes on this read-through since it’s about continuity, but I’ll fix egregious spelling errors or piss-poor grammar. (I don’t even run spell-check till the end of the second draft.)

What I do is mark down any high-level problems in the notebook, usually all on one page. Things like, "I don’t like the theme of justice - doesn’t jive with the end" or "take out the scene about maltolt". These are things I’ll set in front of me when I do the Angry Scalpel draft (see below), to remind me of big-picture issues as I work through the draft.

Sometimes I’ll make small notes in the text itself, like [this ending sucks, add more] or [garbagey transition; fix this] that wouldn’t have any context in the notebook.

I try to arrange it so that I can do the read-through in several long sittings, because it disrupts the flow when I have to get up to let the cat in or get bugged to play Candyland. It’s not always possible, but it is helpful.

This is where large chunks of text disappear beneath the delete key. All that backstory---ffft. Those scenes slated for destruction---gone. Uninspired and lame dialogue---you get it.

My very first task is, of course, to copy the entire draft and date it, so that I have a pristine copy available just in case I change my mind.  Then I use the copy to mold into the second draft.

I keep a detailed list of every scene I take out, and where it came from. Because I still have a copy of my first draft,  I can go back and excise bits from the deleted scene in the future.

Often, this is where I will include scenes that I already know have to be inserted, since they’ll be ready for editing in the third draft. But sometimes I find writing the scenes with the microscopic line-editing draft more helpful, as I’m more intimately involved detail-wise with the plot.

Usually I’ll do a second read-through on-screen to get the predetermined stuff and anything else that does not scan. I read it aloud. It sounds ridiculous, but it really helps with rhythm and pacing, to here where the natural breaks are and where a scene is either getting too long or ends too abruptly.

This is also where I run spell-check and begin to make a list of words I tend to overuse, so when I do the microscope-level revision, I can be on the lookout for them and change them. I also make a list of details I want to be sure to research.

At some point between stages two and three, I press several unsuspecting fellow-writers into being beta readers. I don’t know how I ever wrote without beta readers. There isn’t anything better one can do than get a trusted, capable friend to ask the questions about your story that you don’t think to ask, because it’s your story.

I incorporate their comments usually in the second draft, because the majority are plot-level and need to be put in with sweeping strokes of the keyboard, rather than the micro-level of the third draft.

At this stage, I’m ready to print out a copy and read through it with red pen poised and ready. I can’t stress enough how much it helps to edit on paper. Things look so much different on the screen than they do on paper.

This is the stage where I get an idea of how things look visually on the page. I can see if my paragraphs need to be broken up combined. I can check to see that all my paragraphs all don’t start the same way, or if I used the same construction every other line.

This is also the place where the fine-tooth comb comes in. I examine every sentence to be sure it’s structured properly, moves the plot forward and doesn’t sound lame. Every single sentence must have these three characteristics, or it must be changed or pitched.

It is not uncommon that I change each sentence in a paragraph three times before it’s finally right. I read aloud here, too. This is the draft where I fix every place where I’ve said, "I’ll fix this transition/cut this dialogue/make this more obvious."

In this draft, I finalize all bits requiring research. I look up and authenticate every historical detail that needs it, as taken from the list I made last draft. I make sure the characters’ physical features stay the same. I check and double-check till I'm sick of the g*ddamn thing and come close to hating it.

I’m usually happy with the draft by this time, and give it one last read-though just to make sure all the commas are in the right place and everything is as tight and tense as it can be.

If I'm not happy with it, I go back to Stage Zero and start again.  It's bad for morale, true, but ultimately it makes a better book, which is what I'm really going for.

This stage has a lot in common with stage one, because it’s a high-concept read-through to finalize novel-length plot flow and character development. And I like to enjoy something that I’ve put so much into, because I write books I like to read.

I give it one last spell-check, then combine it into a single document, add the page-numbers and appropriate headers. Then it’s ready to go off into the world.