Oh first draft, you are so bad

Advice on getting your book published is all over the interwebz. Every single piece of that advice says DO NOT QUERY UNTIL YOUR BOOK HAS BEEN THROUGH SEVERAL DRAFTS. Did I listen? Pssssh. No. This isn't a career-ending mistake, but it's a biggie. It is really hard to be objective about your own work. I thought that I was pretty good at editing myself. And I am. As long as I'm writing a news article. Writing fiction is a whole different ballgame, and you really do need at least a couple other sets of eyes reading through your work. That plot twist that makes perfect sense in your mind might not make sense to anyone who lives outside of your head. Get beta readers and USE them. They will be able to tell you how bad your first draft is.

Which brings me to my next point. First drafts are always bad. This is expected and it doesn't mean you are an awful writer. Even if you're a weirdo who can turn out a decent first draft, it can be much, much better after a few rounds of revisions. My advice: you can ALWAYS increase tension and raise the stakes. Before you hand over your baby to your beta readers, sit down with your manuscript and a red pen and make notes about how you can accomplish those two goals. You'll be surprised at how much more your characters come alive and how much your plot can develop. Do a round of revisions based on your own notes and then open yourself up to criticism. Then do another round of revisions. And then maybe another. By the time you're done, you should have a shiny, polished manuscript that barely resembles that first draft.

I'm going to end this post with a metaphor, because I'm a writer and that's what I do. The first draft is the framework for a house. It's not pretty, but it is necessary. You can't drywall and carpet your house without that framing. And for the love of everything that is good, do not invite agents to look at your house when it's just a rough, skeletal frame. Wait until you've got food in the fridge and pictures hanging on the walls.