I’ve always been the kind of guy that edits as I write.
I’m not trying to make my work perfect in the first pass, but I can’t leave glaring mistakes behind if I know they’re there.
That’s the way I am, the way I’m built. I can’t help it.
When I write, even if I have an idea, the mistakes that I might make can be more distracting for me than taking the time to correct them.
Read more
I’m not sure where, but I’ve heard this before: A poem is an affair, a short-story is a relationship and a novel is a marriage. I couldn’t agree more. I’m always amazed so many people write novels considering the time and commitment it takes. And even when we think one novel is done and we’re ready to move on to the next, we may still be revisiting the old novel, working on other projects all while we try and get something going on the new novel.
I’ve been “between” novels for a couple years now. That doesn’t mean I’m not writing, just that I’m not firmly planted in one project or another. Not to mention things come up, other things to be written. I tried my hand at a non-fiction essay, something I hadn’t done in a number of years. I wrote small “story-starters” for the Ontario Writers’ Conference, I wrote blogs, and I wrote letters, lots of them. Read more
If you write, you edit.
There is no way around it.
Oh, you may think you don’t, many people write it down and leave it just the way it is. But they edited it as they were writing.
And if they didn’t go over it again, they made at least one mistake. Because even if you change nothing, going over your work provides you with the opportunity to assure yourself that the words you wrote said the thing you were trying to say.
But let’s say you did that. Let’s say you wrote something and you went over it and you think you’ve got it the way you want it. Let’s just say you’re all done. Bam! That’s all she wrote. Read more