Some people can turn in their first draft to the editor and it is good to go. If you are one of those (Shelby Foote), shoo. This isn’t for you. The rest of us finish – more or less – our story, flop over, and thank our deity if we worship one that it’s done. Then we start typo hunting and wondering why John became James and then Ian in the space of four chapters.

When you finish, unless you are under a publisher-induced deadline, set the story aside. Lock it in a drawer and ignore it the way a cat ignores expensive toys. If you are under deadline, still give yourself some space.

Now, go back and start making notes of where you need to revise. Does the pacing work or do parts race when they should crawl, and the reverse? Do you need more description, or is there so much that scenes d-r-a-g? Are your descriptions clear enough for new readers, but not too much for long-time readers (more of a series problem than stand-alone or short story)?

One of my bug-bears is chronology, so part of draft checking involves sitting down with a notepad and mapping out when things happen, and if a week went missing, or too much happened in a different week. “Jerry said the meeting was Tuesday, but Tuesday just happened and no meeting. And no mention of why no meeting. Oops.”

If things feel “off,” it might be time to ask: what is your main character’s motivation, and what are her conflicts? This is where I’m going to have to sit down and do some work on the book I just finished. I need to step back and look more at internal conflicts. I’ve gotten lazy, since I know the characters so well, and sort of glided through that part of the story. Gliding protagonists make for boring stories. The MC is comfortable, stable (as much as parenthood is stable), and things are predictable. That needs to get changed, and in fact, that level of comfort needs to bite him in the hindquarters. Some of that conflict needs to be internal, and I’m going to have to go back and make sure there’s enough of that.

If your story head-hops, is it consistent? Or at least clear enough that the reader doesn’t start feeling like he’s reading Joyce-meets-Faulkner-as-told-by-Freud. I tend to have one PoV, or to divide it by chapter. You might alternate more often, but it needs to be clear to the reader, unless it is supposed to be confusing. And that needs to be clear as well, if you are doing that. This also applies to dialogue, especially if you do a quick re-read and can’t tell who said what. Tags, voice, those things might benefit from a little polish and adjusting.

Do your chapters start and end with hooks? We talk a lot about how the first sentence of the story, the first paragraphs, have to hook readers and pull them in. But that also applies to the end of chapters and beginning of the next. You want readers to keep reading, yes? Even if the chapter ends with a deep breath and the characters pat themselves on the back because the problem has been solved [cue slightly ominous shift in music] they think, you can still work in a little hook pulling the reader ahead. Sort of a teaser, perhaps foreshadowing, or a hint of what is to come. For example:

“Jake, did you see where the chick with the red hat went?”

“Nah,” a stream of smoke, “I was a little busy. ‘Sides, she’s harmless, just one of the folks on the sidewalk when things went rodeo. Don’t worry.”

Reader thought: Bob should worry.

Bob goes home, but something keeps nagging him, something about the gal in the red hat. Something he ought to remember, something that didn’t seem quite right … End the chapter there, start it the next morning with Bob at the office, looking at security camera footage, or a news photo that was on the front of the morning paper, and—

Does the story seem thin, maybe too simple for what you want it to be? Are there any plot threads that you can draw out, elaborate on a little more? Don’t let them take over (that’s a structural fix, not a second draft or heavy revision), but you can sue them for characterization and other things. In the story that is resting, the main conflict is the main conflict. Running along with that are 1) parenthood, 2) a foster child asking to become more involved in the faith, 3) the usual and unusual problems with the MC’s job, and the spouse’s job. Some of these threads have been running through the series, and are part of setting and world building. Others are unique to the book. They add depth to the story, and in this case, the series.

TL,DR: Let your first draft sit for a while. Check details, check plot threads, check pacing, trace plot threads and thicken if needed.