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Do you edit as you write?
I hear all the time that you shouldn't edit until you've written everything, that editing as you go will slow you down and make you hate your work.
But... well, I edit as I'm writing. I'll go back and fix things in previous scenes, I'll fiddle forever with a single sentence until I get it right, I'll tweak the dialogue earlier in the scene, I'll do whatever I need to for the story to feel like it's ready to flow forward.
It doesn't seem to slow me down, and it makes my writing easier. There do come points where I'm like, "EMMA. LET IT GO. FIX IT LATER," but that's not my all-the-time rule.
So what about you? How does editing midstream affect your work?




I have tried both approaches but I can't edit everything once I finish writing, I have to do it while I write, it annoys me too much knowing that something can be fixed that if I don't fix it I lose my inspiration.
I find that I write faster and more eloquently if I do so without worrying about editing, and I edit faster and more accurately if I do so without writing.
I try not to, but sometimes I just can't help myself.
Same here. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help but try to get it perfect as I write. It's probably part of why I'm so slow to finish anything.
No. I can't. I will never finish anything if I edit while I write. Editing comes way later. I'll post a piece about when I think you should start revising.
I write how I would speak, as eloquently as possible, and I do as much edititing as I can while I am writing. Teachers would nag me about not "Brainstorming" or writing rough and first drafts, yet my essays always passed with flying colours. My University English professor was so impressed, he used my narrative as a teaching guide for his classes.
I write beat if I don't worry about editing, but getting the motivation to edit is a whole 'nother battle.
One of my favorite authors edits as she goes -- Juliet Marillier. You might find her interview interesting... https://epicfantasywriter.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/author-journeys-welcome-juliet-marillier/
Favorite quote: "I don’t do multiple full drafts, I generally revise and edit as I go. So I will complete, say, three chapters, then go back over those, tweak the overall plan if required, then write the next three chapters. Each time I stop, I go back over the whole previous manuscript. By the time I reach the end, some parts of the ms might have been revised eight or nine times."
It's actually one of my goals to write a book like that. Right now, though, I find that I lose a lot of my momentum if I go back and edit while I'm writing. I can fix little things, but it's like I have to only look at the horizon because if I look behind me, I get sucked into the "this story isn't good enough" blahs. Eventually, I'll get over those enough to actually go back and edit, but that's also why I have to let a book sit for like 3 months after I've finished writing it before I can go back and work on it again.
I used to edit as I wrote but I have been trying to edit later more and I find I write better that way. I have also been using http://www.hemingwayapp.com as I write and I find that helps too.
Very much a writer who self-edits during the process. As a journalist, it comes naturally. I find the strategy often adds new ideas and helps strengthen the end result.
I used to write on the train to and from work when I was interning. I wrote on Google docs app on my phone so it wouldn't be difficult to put onto a computer when the chapter was ready, and it used to be that you couldn't edit the file unless you had an internet connection. The first four stops were underground so I was basically forced to re-read my work every morning for twenty minutes, and in my opinion it helped me catch errors, improve phrasing, and get me back into a writing mood when I finally got signal again
I recommend it