First Draft Finished! What's Next?

I'm leaving for a doctor's appointment in a few minutes. But I just wanted to let you know that I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT!! The official "pile" in my official is actually now two stacks. Both are impressively high, and that's been inspiring. But now they are big and messy enough to start bugging the crap out of me because they are really adding to the clutter in my office. So I may take a breath and put the articles away before I move on to the next step.

So what's next? I have 21 chapters that will now need editing. The next step will involve making sure that all the content is where I want it, so that will involve a considerably amount of moving things around. Right now, I've got about 25 days (give or take) until my deadline. If I can do at least a chapter a day, I'll be in great shape.

After I make sure content is where I want it, I'll start making finer-grained edits, such as adding transitions between paragraphs and sections. I'll be proofreading all along. But it won't be until near the end that I do the final proofreading.

I haven't been working in hard copy yet, but I'll have to soon. Books eat up an enormous amount of paper. I've been trying to hold off so as to save at least a few trees. It's also better for my printer if I do as much as I can electronically. I've also killed two printers working on other books, and my current printer is on life-support. It's still limping along and I hope it survives long enough for me to use up the cartridges I already have. So working electronically is good while you can.

But eventually, you have to print things out. We just got a new case of paper.

Well, I'd better run. The doctor awaits. More details later. :-)