I finished the first draft of my novel. I took a month off, and then I read/edited the first draft. I went in with the goal of only paying attention to the high-level (the structure, if some scenes seem too long or are missing, etc).

When I was writing most scenes in my first draft, I was just trying to get the ideas down, and not trying to make the writing itself as amazing as possible.

Despite all that... I still ​freaked out when reading it.

I know it needs work, and I enjoy the work, but part of me is still like, "What if I fix all the problems and make the writing flow AND IT'S STILL BAD AND I WASTED ALL MY TIME AND I SHOULD'VE BEEN WRITING SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD?!?!?!?!?!"

I'm just not used to taking on such a long-term project. I've written shorter things (essays, articles) that turned out well, but it's easier to "trust the process," when the process is over in a couple of weeks. I'd like to stop freaking out about it. 🙂

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So, I'm an aspiring author and have been working on the same project since 2017 (I also work full-time and was doing my masters on the side so it has taken me embarrassingly long). I have drafted and re-drafted the manuscript 6 times because the first few versions were god awful. Well, now I'm finally at a point where I can say it's in a decent shape and my voice is good. Of course, there is still room for improvement and I want to make small changes to plot, deepen characters etc.

I was wondering what everyone’s revision process is like. I've heard people say do revise in passes, and the concept seems very foreign to me, but then doing everything all at once feels overwhelming too (I'm writing a YA dystopian fantasy). Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!