Module Three: Polish and Perfect
Now that your first draft is complete, it’s time for editing. In Module Three: Polish and Perfect, you begin the challenging work of making your manuscript ready for publication. All of our time is devoted to polishing your work and getting it as close to perfect as you can before you engage a professional editor to give it that final spit-shine.
And get ready to read and re-read your manuscript, because we will do that a total of five times — and two of those readings will be out loud. If you want your book to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the other great books on the market, the key is in the editing.
We will spend some time expanding your scenes and then divide your manuscript in sections to do the granular editing to activate the language, ensure consistency, balance the message, and polish the grammar and punctuation. At the end of Module Three, you will have a manuscript that you developed, organized, wrote, and polished. You will have written your book! Then we’ll get it in the hands of a capable editor for that professional seal of approval.
Module Three: Polish and Perfect will guide you to:
- Segment and balance your manuscript
- Write supplemental scenes
- Incorporate literary techniques to enhance the manuscript
- Activate passive writing
- Weave together your BookMAPs
- Write compelling reader discussion questions
- Simplify and clarify your writing
- Write compelling back-cover copy
- Find a fitting book title
- Complete the front and back matter
Module Three Components:
- Lesson 1: Export and review. Full read #1
- Lesson 2: Supplement the scenes / Dialogue / Pacing
- Lesson 3: Vocabulary / Conflate
- Lesson 4: Target Markets / Endorsements / Focus Reader Groups
- Lesson 5: Balance
- Lesson 6: Cultural references / Accidental Plagiarism / Permissions / Study
Questions. Full read #2 - Lesson 7: Transitions / Sentence Variety / Tight writing / Chapter titles
- Lesson 8: Clutter vs. Clarity. Full read #3
- Lesson 9: Passive to Active, Point of view, Personal Pronouns
- Lesson 10: Voice / Tongue twists / Awkward Writing & Wordiness / Numbers
- Lesson 11: Grammar, Punctuation
- Lesson 12: Audience and Purpose/ Braiding / Transitions / Pull Quotes / Book
Title and Subtitle. Full Read #4 - Lesson 13: Killer First Line/ First Page; Last paragraph / Impact on the Reader
- Lesson 14: Front and Back Matter / Checklist for Publication. Full Read #5
