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Hello all! So the second week has begun. And what are you doing about it? Don’t tell me your hard at work, crunching numbers for some bank, or in some warehouse stacking boxes. I don’t want to hear it! You should have told your boss that you’ve got ...

Love writing but not editing? Has the enthusiasm for editing your novel begun to wane? Mur Lafferty knows how you feel.

Character development is one of the most important parts to writing a novel. And yes, I know that you’ve already written your novel, so how, you ask, does this fit in with editing? Well, if you don’t know your characters enough, how can you possibly edit and rewrite your novel?

Now, what I'm getting at here is that the person who decides what should be in your novel is you. I am saying this with the confidence of the General in the U.S. Civil War, Union General John Sedgwick, who said 'They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance' moments before being shot dead by a confederate sniper at Spotsylvania, but I'm saying it none the less.

Editing a novel is hard work. Writing the first draft is hard work too. In both instances a writer is trying to combine the array of tools available to them. With the first draft the focus is on getting the story down on paper. There’s always the option of saying, “I’ll fix that, I’ll make it better when I edit.” Looking at that first draft with the task of editing ahead can be very daunting. So what are we doing when we edit?

Yup, I named it after myself. I’ve never been that modest.

My name is Val Griswold-Ford, and I’ve got one fiction book and two non-fiction books under my belt, with another fiction book and another non-fiction book coming out within the next two years. Hopefully within the next year. I also have five years’ worth of editing experience at a large daily newspaper in Connecticut. I know quite a bit about editing.

I am also very, very anal. Very close to obsessive-compulsive. Be warned.

It's a daunting task: staring down several thousand words that you've obsessed and slaved over for weeks or months or longer to just get onto the page without deleting them in disgust. And now you have to make them coherent? Polished? And heaven forbid... saleable?

You've written the first draft of a long story or novel, maybe as part of NaNoWriMo, or maybe as a year long slog. It doesn't matter, it's done. And it's a first draft, which means it's probably a bit crap and needs a lot of work. Don't worry! That's what it's meant to be. No-one turns out brilliant and perfect first drafts. No. One.

One you have a completed first draft, use this list to help edit you novel