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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36267
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm in a situation similar to yours and I also want to maximize the chance of the novel being good enough right from the start.

I plan to do this:

1. Design the plot.
2. Write a shitty first draft as fast as possible.
3. Improve it through editing yourself. Rewrite chapters or the entire novel, if necessary.
4. Hire an editor.

Details to steps 1 and 4 follow.

**Plot Design**

In my opinion you need to get the plot right before you start writing. You cannot improve some plot problems (e. g. too few things happen in the novel, conflicts aren't tough enough) through editing. That's why plot design is the first step. The outcome of this process is

1. the event sequence (all events that somehow are important for your story),
2. the scene sequence, and
3. an idea (mental or written) on who your most important characters are and what people they are.

Usually, a scene corresponds to one event and one chapter. Not all events have a corresponding scenes. Some events (like births of characters) are included in the story (transformed to scenes) only, if this is necessary due to story requirements.

Another difference: The event sequence is linear (events occur one after another). The scenes describing those events may appear in the novel in a different order (e. g. the novel starts with an action scene from the middle, then the following chapters explain what happened before that; all kinds of flashbacks, memories etc.).

**Hiring an editor**

If there is anyone who knows whether your novel is good enough for publishing, it's a good editor. It's the editors who decide whether or not a novel gets published.

The most natural thing is to hire such person so that he or she will tell you how to improve your work. By hiring him or her you can tap into their experience of reading, editing, and rejecting hundreds of novels. This probably can save you time and make the success on the first attempt more likely.

At least that's what I intend to do with the book I'm writing now.

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