Editing After NaNoWriMo: From 50k Draft to Second Draft in 6 Weeks

You crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line—or came close—and now the big question lands: what to do after NaNoWriMo?

This six-week editing plan turns a fast first draft into a workable second draft without burning you out. It’s designed for December–January action, but it works any time you’ve got a fresh 40k-60k words you want to revise and edit.

How to use this plan

• Work in short, consistent blocks (45–75 minutes).
• Separate reading, planning, and rewriting so you’re never trying to do three jobs at once.
• Keep a single “rewrite journal” (digital or paper) where your notes, decisions, and checklists live.

6-Week NaNoWriMo Editing Guide

Week 1: Decompress + High-Level Read-Through

Goal: See the book you actually wrote, not the one you meant to write.

What to do

1. Take 2–3 days off. Sleep, walk, read someone else’s pages.
2. Print or e-reader only. No editing on the draft file.
3. Read fast and jot margin notes—not complete fixes:
   • Where energy drops
   • Places you skim
   • Moments that surprised you (keep these)
   • Recurring images/themes that showed up on their own
4. At the end, write a one-page “as-is” summary: protagonist, desire, central problem, what breaks in the middle, and how it ends.

What not to do

• Don’t line-edit. Don’t tinker with sentences. The point is clarity, not polish.

Week 2: Story Spine Check (Goal → Obstacle → Choice → Change)

Goal: Confirm the structural backbone to give your revision direction.

Build a simple spine for each act

• Act I: What does the protagonist want? What’s the first unavoidable obstacle? What choice pushes them into Act II? What change does that choice cause?
• Act II (first half): New plan, new pressure, a reversal that raises the cost.
• Act II (second half): The mirror moment (what am I becoming?), a risky choice, consequences.
• Act III: The decisive choice that proves the theme, and the change that sticks.

Deliverable: A one-page outline that lists those beats in your story as it exists now. If any square is blank or muddy, it becomes a Week 6 milestone.

Week 3: Scene Triage (Keep / Fix / Cut) + Gap List

Goal: Decide what lives, what improves, and what disappears—quickly.

Method

1. Create a scene list: chapter #, location, on-stage characters, and what changes in the scene.
2. Label each: Keep, Fix, or Cut. Be brisk—don’t solve fixes yet.
3. Make a Gap List: moments your Week 2 spine needs but your draft doesn’t have (e.g., “we never see her pay a price for lying,” “no scene where the mentor’s advice backfires”).
4. Re-order scenes on paper or in a card tool until the cause-and-effect chain feels clean. If moving a scene solves two problems, do it.

Speed tip: Any scene without change is either a Cut or needs a specific Fix (new conflict, new information, or a decision that costs something).

Week 4: Character Pass (Desire, Wound, Tactic) + Dialogue Tightening

Goal: Make people feel real and in motion.

Three questions per central character

• Desire: What do they want in the story and in this scene?
• Wound: What past event/story belief makes that desire costly or complicated?
• Tactic: How do they try to get what they want—and how does that tactic evolve?
• Read more about character development.

Practical edits

• Track one tell-tale behavior per character (the way she dodges questions, the joke he uses when cornered). Sprinkle consistently.
• Give each pairing (protagonist + foil, protagonist + love interest, protagonist + antagonist) a small arc: what they believe about each other in Act I vs. Act III.
• Dialogue tightening:
  • Cut the throat-clearing lines.
  • Replace repetition with subtext.
  • When in doubt, move information into action (a choice) rather than into speech.

Week 5: World/Continuity Pass + Research Stubs

Goal: Remove distractions that break trust and close knowledge gaps.

Continuity sweep

• Name spellings, ages, timelines, travel times, money values, and injuries.
• Setting rules: magic/tech limits, legal constraints, weather/season cues.
• Props that disappear between scenes (the missing backpack problem).

World details

• Anchor each new location with two sensory specifics that aren’t visual.
• Check cause-and-effect in your world rules: if X is possible in chapter 5, why isn’t it used in chapter 18?

Research stubs

• Replace “[research this]” brackets with 15-minute micro-sessions. Time-box it so research doesn’t swallow the week. If a deep dive is required, log it as a Week 6 milestone.

Week 6: Rewrite Plan + Milestones + Beta-Reader Checklist

Goal: Turn the analysis into an actionable second-draft plan you can finish.

Build your plan

1. Choose 3–5 milestones tied to the most significant wins from Weeks 2–5. Examples:
   • New midpoint reversal scene
   • Cut travel chapter; merge its clue into Chapter 7
   • Retool the antagonist tactic and add one early tell.
   • Fix continuity in timeline weeks 3–4
2. For each milestone, list the scenes affected and the specific edits or new pages required.
3. Schedule your next 3–4 weeks by output, not time: e.g., “Revise six existing scenes + draft two new ones,” rather than “write for 10 hours.”

When to Use Beta Readers

Consider using bate readers after you finish this second draft pass, not before. Ask 2–4 readers who enjoy your genre and will answer specific questions.

Beta-reader example questions

• Where did you skim or set the pages down?
• Which moment felt inevitable in a good way?
• What did you understand about the protagonist’s desire, and when?
• Where did motivation feel thin or convenient?
• Which character surprised you (good or bad)?
• Any place the world rules felt fuzzy or broken?
• If you had to cut one scene, which one and why?
• One line or moment you’d keep at all costs?

Quick Reference: 6-Week Aftercare Checklist

• Week 1: Fast read, margin notes, one-page “as-is” summary.
• Week 2: Story spine worksheet filled for each act.
• Week 3: Scene list with Keep/Fix/Cut, reordered outline, gap list.
• Week 4: Character desire/wound/tactic clarified; dialogue trimmed.
• Week 5: Continuity cleaned; world rules reinforced; research stubs resolved.
• Week 6: 3–5 milestones chosen; scene-level plan; beta-reader questions prepped.

Keep Your Momentum Without Overdoing It

• Work in passes, not perfection loops.
• Keep a done list next to your to-do list so you see progress.
• When energy dips, grab a scene seed (a NaNoWriMo prompt or beat idea) from your notes and draft something small.

This is the gentle, durable way to revise your NaNoWriMo draft: one focused week at a time, with decisions captured in a tidy journal and changes made where they matter most—at the scene and spine level. When the six weeks wrap, you’ll have a coherent second draft and a clear path to targeted feedback.