When it comes to writing–and most things, honestly–I’ve always been a pretty dedicated rule follower. As a newbie writer first getting acquainted with the publishing industry and with what it took to write for publication, I was willing to try just about any piece of halfway logical writing advice I came across because I believed that some tried and true rules would make the act of writing easier.
Most of those rules were either gradually implemented into my usual writing routines once I realized that they worked for me or discarded once I realized they didn’t, but there were a few that I clung to for far longer than I should’ve because I was convinced they should help me. The most obvious and most egregious of these involved forcing myself to write all the way through a first draft before stopping to edit.
To be fair, this isn’t inherently bad advice. When I was struggling with my own writing, I needed to embrace that ‘keep pushing through’ mentality in order to finish anything at all. But as my priorities have shifted from desperately trying to finish first drafts to writing better, cleaner, more intentional first drafts, I’ve had to let go of that ‘no editing’ rule for the sake of my stories.
Sometimes the ideas that I’ve come up with in the outlining stage don’t work when I try and transfer them to the page. Sometimes I come up with a better, smarter, simpler idea from out of the blue that will change the course of my story for the better, and that I need to start implementing NOW. And sometimes–most times, if I’m being honest–I come gradually to the realization that something about what I’m writing, whether it’s a character relationship or a subplot or the arc of the story itself, isn’t working for me, and I pause to try and figure out why.
I may have written faster drafts when I followed my old ‘no editing’ rule, but those drafts were a mess. Most of them required dozens of revision passes before they were salvageable. Plenty of them weren’t salvageable at all. In paying attention to the story I want to tell while I’m actually writing, I’m starting to produce cleaner, less fragmented drafts. I’m also enjoying the drafting process a lot more.
Back in the spring, I realized that I hadn’t given the murky middle of my story or one of the key character relationships at the center of it nearly enough thought. Before, I would’ve put my reservations aside and kept writing for the sake of meeting my goals and finishing my draft. This time, I put the story aside and went back to the drawing board. I spent a month brainstorming and daydreaming and scribbling copious notes in my notebooks as I re-thought my approach. I didn’t end up changing a lot of things, but the things I did change were HUGE. Among them were:
1) The amount of action my MC was taking throughout the middle of the story. (She was incredibly passive in my initial version.)
2) The nature of my MC’s relationship with the LI and how that relationship unspooled on the page.
3) The shape of my MC’s character arc
4) The order of events in the beginning/the process by which information was revealed
5) Many individual scenes and how those scenes played out, since most of them were absent real stakes or real consequences for the characters involved.
When I started writing again in June, everything was easier. The words flowed effortlessly, and I felt flush with ideas. Since that time, I’ve finished re-working part one of my manuscript, begun part two, and paused to re-assess and make adjustments at least four or five more times. I’m betting I’ll have to again before the draft is finished, but that’s okay. I’m following the rule that works for me.
Do you edit while you draft? If so, what sorts of issues are important enough for you to stop and fix? Let me know in the comments!
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