How to Revise Your Novel in Multiple Drafts

September 2, 2025

Any seasoned author knows you’ll need multiple drafts of your novel to get it across the finish line. But the question becomes, how to structure them? Should you always edit in order, when should you get outside opinions, and how do you know how polished it should be before asking someone to read?

In this article, we’ll break down a tried-and-true strategy for planning multiple drafts of your book. Let’s get started.

Overview

First, the disclaimer that comes with every piece of writing advice: what’s true for some isn’t true for all. We will lay out one strategy. It will work for many, but everyone needs to find the system that works for them. With that out of the way, here it is:

Draft 1: just get it done. The "discovery draft."
Draft 2: structural changes. Big-picture revision.
Draft 3: polish. Refining the language before outside eyes see it.

Feedback

Draft 4: structural changes. Incorporating external developmental feedback.
Draft 5: polish. Refining prose post-feedback.

Second Feedback Loop

Rinse and repeat as many times as needed. The idea is that in Draft 1, you get words on the page. You get the skeleton of the story in ink. Then you change the things you know you needed to change while you were writing, polish it up, and send it off for feedback.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s a lot of drafts. And you’re not wrong! The amount of drafts you need to churn out a solid novel usually correlates to your experience as an author. Seasoned writers develop an intuition over time for what their readers will understand, how to develop characters that resonate, how to foreshadow effectively, and how to maintain consistent pacing. Newer authors still need to develop that muscle. A new writer’s first draft is often messy, with tense changes, head-hopping, nuggets of magic, but much room for improvement.

A quick note: these drafts are not all created equal. A polish in Draft 5 will not take as long as your initial Draft 1, so hopefully if you're worried about how much time it will take to revise, that offers some relief.

Now that we have the overarching idea, let’s dive into specifics.

Draft 1: Get Everything on the Page

Your first draft is you telling yourself the story. And while it’s difficult, what you need to do here is just write. Don’t worry about perfection, and critically, don’t go back and edit. That means that if you make a change to your story in Chapter 10 that messes everything up in Chapter 5, don’t go back and fix it. Even if you change your main character’s name, don’t go back. Once you finish a chapter, leave it as is until the next draft.

This is very difficult for new authors. They expect (or hope) that after typing ‘The End’ they’ll send it off to an editor. That doesn’t happen. Even professional, prolific authors need multiple drafts to churn out a strong narrative, so get comfortable with the fact that you’ll need to edit.

And once you accept that, it makes it easier to resist editing, because you know you’ll come back to it later. The reason for this approach is simple: it saves you time. If you did go back and change Chapter 5, you might decide in Chapter 15 that you actually had it right, and need to go back again. So wait until you see the entire picture before going back and changing the puzzle pieces. This no-editing approach is crucial for maintaining momentum and completing that all-important first draft.

Draft 2: Structural Changes

In the second draft, this is where you go fix all the things you left in Draft 1. This is your first major act of true editing, and it's all about the big picture.

Key areas to focus on in Draft 2:

Plot: Are there any plot holes? Does the story progress logically? Are there any dropped subplots or inconsistencies?
Characters: Do your characters have clear motivations? Are their arcs compelling and believable? Is their voice consistent?
Pacing: Does the story move at an appropriate speed? Are there parts that drag or rush too quickly?
World-building: Is your world consistent and immersive? Have you provided enough (but not too much) information?
Themes: Are your core themes clear and woven throughout the narrative without being preachy?

Maybe you added a new character halfway through the book, or perhaps you cut a character from the novel entirely. Maybe you decided to change the setting from New York to Toronto, or shift the entire climax to an earlier point. Whatever it is, this is where you make the big, overarching, structural changes to your manuscript. Cut scenes, add scenes, rearrange chapters, combine characters, or even rewrite entire sections.

And good thing you hadn’t gone back to edit in Draft 1, otherwise you might be duplicating a lot of work. Something that helps during this phase is to make all the notes at once. Decide precisely what your second draft is going to cover, add the necessary notes at the top of each chapter while the entire narrative is fresh in your mind, then go about executing. This systematic approach ensures you address all known structural issues before moving to the finer details.

Draft 3: Polish Your Prose

This is the last draft before sending it for outside feedback. And while your prose doesn’t necessarily need to sing, it needs to be somewhat polished, so that whoever is reading your manuscript doesn’t just send grammatical errors your way. You want higher-level feedback, understanding if your character arc lands, if the tension is effective, or if the emotional beats resonate. But if your readers are bogged down in run-on sentences, missing dialogue tags, confusing sentence structures, and too many spelling mistakes, it will distract them from getting you what you need: constructive critiques on your story itself.

Focus areas for Draft 3 (self-polish):

Clarity and Flow: Read through, looking for awkward phrasing, convoluted sentences, and places where the narrative stumbles.
Word Choice: Replace weak verbs with strong ones, eliminate unnecessary adverbs, and strive for precision in your language.
Sensory Details: Enhance descriptions to engage the reader's senses. Show, don't just tell.
Dialogue: Ensure dialogue sounds natural, advances the plot, and reveals character. Check for consistent voice.
Basic Mechanics: While not a final proofread, catch obvious typos, grammar errors, and punctuation issues.

A manuscript on a desk with floating feedback bubbles floating overhead

Feedback

Next, you need feedback. Authors are inherently too close to see all the flaws in their own stories. You know every hidden motive and piece of foreshadowing, every subtle nuance you intended. A fresh reader doesn’t. So at this point, what you need is an objective third party to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly about your manuscript.

We’ve written extensively about the different kinds of feedback on this blog, so if you need a refresher, check out this article on how to know whether to choose beta readers, critique partners, or other editors.

This is also the perfect time for developmental editing, so if you’re unsure what exactly that means, this resource might be helpful in understanding how different editors can assess your manuscript's overall structure and story.

And lastly, this is a good moment to mention Inkshift. Inkshift provides a comprehensive manuscript analysis on your structure and pacing, prose, character development, setting immersion, and much more. This article goes into more depth, but suffice it to say Inkshift is a great way to get feedback fast, so you can get started on Draft 4. Speaking of which…

Future Drafts (The Feedback Loop)

Once you receive feedback from beta readers, critique partners, professional editors, or Inkshift, the next step is implementation.

A quick warning: Draft 4 is often the most difficult. You’ve already poured three drafts into a manuscript, you think it’s in a strong spot, and it’s difficult if feedback doesn’t necessarily align with that. It can feel like taking a few steps back after making so much progress. Often Draft 4 involves structural changes, but unlike your early drafts, your story is more defined which means there are more constraints. You might have to creatively re-route plotlines, introduce new elements that feel organic, or make significant cuts to beloved scenes. But make no mistake, putting the work in will result in a stronger manuscript, and you’ll be glad at the end that you made the changes. Embrace the challenge; it's a sign of growth as a writer.

Once you’ve made the larger-scale changes based on that feedback, it’s time for another quick polish. Edit your manuscript from start to finish, make sure plot points still align, character motivations remain clear, and readability is tight. This is where you iron out any new inconsistencies introduced by the major revisions. Then, send it off for more feedback. Preferably from someone reading it for the first time again, so as not to be biased by their earlier read. Again, this is where Inkshift can help. Each analysis is run independently, so every time you submit your draft, it’s a fresh ‘read.’

Rinse and Repeat

With each round of changes after feedback, you’re getting closer to the final version. The nature of the changes typically shifts as well. Early in the process, you're making large, sweeping alterations. Later, changes are less significant, often focusing on subtle enhancements, deeper emotional resonance, or finessing dialogue. The editing goes faster, and you start knowing your book like the back of your hand. This iterative process is how to polish a rough gem into a brilliant diamond.

Again, this system won’t work for everyone, but many writers find success by getting the initial draft on the page, then cycling through a structure edit, polish edit, and sending it off for feedback. This methodical approach ensures no major aspect of your story is overlooked and gives your manuscript the best chance to shine. Best of luck with your manuscript!