Editing

I have recently reached the gratifying position of having completed a first draft of my latest book. There is a part of me that feels that this is a very foolish thing to have done. There is another more easily appeased part of me that welcomes the gratification and is happy to put his feet up. For what comes next for the book is exciting, but before that there is the essential period of metaphorically putting in a drawer for a while. 

The thinking behind this is that you can put some distance between yourself and the process that produced the first draft. You have been too close to it for too long and need the perspective that comes from going away and getting on with something else for a while. This latter part comes easily to me. It's like the start of the school holidays, a glorious end to drudgery that will surely last forever. 

Since I'm currently unburdened by commercial pressure, that holiday could easily last forever. My first draft would remain forever in its metaphorical drawer, unpolished and riddled with typos. However, where's the fun in that? As difficult as editing can be, it's not as daunting as starting a first draft, or at least if it is, it's daunting in a different way. Also, the gratification that comes from completing a final draft can last as long as a day. 

With that said, what is the optimal length a first draft should languish in a drawer before editing begins? Below are a selection of durations I've sometimes considered using: 

• 1 week. This is far too keen. Aside from not capitalising on the opportunity to spend time away from the blessed thing, it isn't nearly enough time to forget about the little details that had been worrying you. They will most likely not matter or end up being cut anyway.
• 1 month. This is actually a very sensible length of time as by then you will remember the general plot but may still surprise yourself with the way you wrote it, for better or worse. You should aim for this, but then leave it until...
• 2 months. This is typically where I end up. It's healthy balance between having a rest and active procrastination. You will be reading the book with fresh enough eyes that you will be hopefully be pleasantly surprised by parts of it. There will still be plenty that needs attention, of course. These parts will usually materialise immediately after you think to yourself that the editing is going swimmingly and isn't going to take nearly as long as you'd feared.
• 1 year. This is too long. You will probably have forgotten how the plot was supposed to work and will be second guessing yourself all the way through the edit before having to start again. Your procrastination will have turned the prospect of editing into a dreadful chore. You should still do it though. It won't be as bad as you think once your head's back in it. Imagine how bad it would be if you left it for...
• 10 years. Hopefully you wrote another book instead. Or maybe abandoned novel-writing in favour of something more lucrative like collecting discarded lottery tickets? Either way you're probably not going to be dusting this one down after so long. But maybe you should at least give it a read. Have a think about it. Then maybe you can come back to it again in a couple of months? 
• 100 years. In some ways this is the ideal length to leave it. As far as excuses for not editing go, being dead is hard to argue with. You would also most likely be dead even if you had finished the book, unless it was a book detailing how to achieve immortality, in which case you can finish it whenever you get around to it.