Why You Should Never Edit as You Write
Are you frazzled whenever you sit down to write? Frustrated? Ready to give up? Do you sit, thesaurus in hand, pondering the exact word to describe what you are trying to say? Are you vexed between the choices? Can you not decide whether your heroine’s eyes should be cerulean blue or azure? Please don’t. You should never edit as you write.
Editing While You Write Conflicts with How the Brain Works
One part of your brain is dominant while you write, and a different part is dominant while you edit. When you stop to examine what you’ve written, or to find exactly the correct word, you move from the creative part of your brain to the critical part of your brain. The critical mind comes to the forefront and the creative mind goes on vacation, leaving you further from flow.
In this way, editing while you write prevents you from entering the most desirable state a writer can be in: flow.
Always Seek the Flow State
The best way to write is in flow. True flow is an almost hypnotic state where the world fades and time melts. Anyone can enter the flow state, yet this desirable state can be elusive at first. I believe that flow is a habit that develops over time. The more you write, the more easily you can slip into flow. This is yet another reason to develop a daily writing habit.
How do you get into flow? The first step is to stop second guessing yourself. When you write, write. Just tell the story. Don’t worry about your grammar or your syntax or your vocabulary or your typos. Set a timer. (Once you start getting into flow easily, you may want to set a timer anyway so that you don’t lose track of time.)
Don’t answer the door. Turn off your ringer. Tell your family to leave you alone for the length of your writing session. Just write.
Literally anything that you write can be fixed during the editing process. The only thing you should be focusing on is getting words on the screen (or into your notebook). After you give them a rest (it helps to see what you’ve written more objectively if you ignore it for a bit, maybe overnight, maybe longer), then when you go back and reread what you’ve written with fresh eyes, then you may edit if you’d like.
Write Now…Edit Later
When it is time to edit, you have options. Ernest Hemingway had a routine. Each morning he would reread his work, edit, and then do his writing for that day.
I prefer to wait until the work is complete to edit anything. The first editing pass that I do is to read the whole work at once and look for logic holes, missing plot points, and unneeded scenes. If I’d invested much time editing a scene that I would later be cutting because I just didn’t need it, I’d be angry with myself.
Of course, I can see the logic in Hemingway’s process. Someday I might try his technique but only lightly edit, fixing typos and the like.
So long as you never edit as you write, how you edit is up to you. If you’re unfamiliar with editing, have no fear. I’ll be posting a mini-series on the editing process in the near future. Hey! I’ve got an idea! Why don’t you get a story going today so that you’ll have something to edit when the time comes?
As always, happy writing!
Want to become a better writer? Check out Seven Simple Ways to Make Your Writing Rock!
