I have one novel awaiting a final edit. I have a sequel in need of some serious editing. I have now started a third novel. One part of me says I should knuckle down and get the editing done, but another part just wants to write. I can see it coming. Three novels, all needing work. What should I do? Turn off the creative faucet and focus on the two already written and risk this new idea fading, or let it flow?
Editing sucks. I feel your pain. What are you goals? If publication is one of them, especially trade publication, then I think it's important to get the first novel totally finished and get it sent off to agents. You'll have PLENTY of time for other writing while the first one is working its way through the system. But if enjoyment/satisfaction is more important than publication for you, I think you should let yourself do what's most enjoyable. That all seems a bit trite and obvious, now that I've typed it up. I guess I could have left it at "what are you goals, and what do you have to do to meet them?"
Groan... another task finding an agent... writing queries and stuff... I do want to get my stuff published. And I believe finding an agent is the best option but I am pretty clueless about how to do that.
Well, you definitely need to get something totally finished, first. And then, as I said, it's still generally a long process--the publishing world moves SLOWLY--so you'll have plenty of time to write your other stuff.
Totally agree with @BayView - Get things a hundred percent finished. Absolutely everything in this business is a marathon not a sprint. Every single thing. Don't get me wrong, editing fucking sucks. It's awful. I spend more time editing than writing and it is the most frustrating thing because I have three more things ready to just start writing. But you gotta do it. Because if it's not finished it's not anything. Until it's finished you can't submit, you can't get betareaders, you can't even really say you've written a book. So finish it. If you really feel you have this idea that you need to get down; make a couple of pages of notes, put it down, trust yourself that you can come back and make it good. Finishing the editing is just the phase 2 marathon of actually being a writer. There's at least two more to come and you just have no choice in that. Better to just start running and get them done; get the book finished so you can begin the joy of receiving rejection letters and waiting and waiting and waiting to hear nothing of value. Something to always keep in mind though, to hopefully keep your spirits up. This is an endurance event. And good ideas have endurance. If it's good you can write it just as well once you're done, better in fact, because you bring in the knowledge of editing and finalizing a work that will help you in your writing process; to avoid mistakes you see yourself making or to ensure that what you write first out doesn't need as much editing work.
I agree very much with the above. I'm in the midst of editing my second book and it's no fun at all compared to the experience of writing it in the first place. It's tedious, ego-piercing, and leads to a lot of self-recrimination where I ask myself why I just didn't write the damn thing better in the first place. I was just getting somewhere with my new MS when the editing deadline for the book above came due, and I've had to completely put it aside until I'm done editing.
To deal with the specific point of "why didn't I write it better first time"; the best approach is not to set that bar for yourself. If 'good' doesn't just spring to mind as you're writing then settle for 'done' and move on, knowing that you're going to come back and poke at it anyway. I feel you for just how frustrating it is reading back something you were pretty sure was good and turns out to be barely be 'done'. Especially when accompanied by helpful notes from your past self such as 'Maybe?' with no further context. But the thing to focus on is the end result being good; it's annoying as hell to be coming back and having to do a lot of straight writing work that you didn't even remember needing to do; but it's the finish line that matters and as long as you finish with a good book it doesn't matter. I think this still comes under the idea of discipline as a writer and successfully finishing projects; allowing yourself to screw things up and not let it knock you off your stride. Even as you are writing something and knowing that it's not all that good, even with no idea how you are going to fix it; it's better to get something down, get across the gist of it and trust yourself to fix it. Don't push yourself to get it perfect, or kick yourself for not being amazing first time out, just get something down and get onto the next bit. Laboring over a scene that you have no idea for is how you end up sitting for days feeling 'blocked'. Getting frustrated because you aren't the wordsmith you hoped is how you quit out from editing and don't get things done. As I'm sure you can all tell I am a superb writer but I am also a wordy motherfucker. Everything I write is too long. Every single scene, every single everything. Always too long, too many words, let characters talk around in circles, have the same conversation twice in the same conversation, go off on digressions about some tiny aspect of character history that fascinates me in the moment (things like this are why I know about ballet and circus acrobatics) and I just kinda let myself do it. I know that it's a major pain in the ass. Trimming a hundred thousand or more words out of a book is no easy task, and yes that is every book I've ever written. But I can't even make myself not do it. Because that's how I go and find these amazing moment, and once I take a razor to my work and take out the other stuff that lead me there it leads to these incredibility concentrated emotional moments; same pain in half the footprint and they are even better as a result. And it's awesome. But I just can't do it any other way. And that's ok. Because the end result is just awesome. And everything else leading up to that point is just fine, as long as the end result kicks the crap out of you.
Sounds like you've got one of those 'happy' problems. I read Stephen King writes 2,000 words in the morning (as a minimum) then spends the afternoon editing. It's a crucial but laborious part of the craft.
I certainly put out a whole lot of words. But it's easier to do than most people think. Just teaching yourself the attitude of not being critical and just getting things done is, well, critical. I'm not saying that you should force yourself to write when you have no ideas at all but it's really not that hard. Just write a thing. Just pick it up and find something interesting or fun or whatever in the scene and go do it. Remember, good can wait, just write out what you want in the scene, the barest of bones even if you are feeling uninspired. And just as you do that you can find a thread in there, a line of dialogue that gives you something to work with and then you're good to go. The thing is just getting moving until you find that thing to tug on that makes it easy to write again. It doesn't come naturally really but the only way that you get back into the flow is by writing and even if that first page is really ragged and uncertain that's fine, just go out and find something that makes you want to keep writing to see where it goes. A lot of it is just about attitude. Letting yourself write bad stuff on the way to good stuff and keeping yourself motivated by the end result not the start is all it takes to write lots. On a writing day I put out 8 to 12 thousand words because I just spend the whole day typing. At least half of that is going to get cut. A good chunk of the rest will be re-written or heavily edited. But that's ok because I'm getting stuff down, I'm pushing through scenes and finding those important moments that I'd never have thought up if I just sat and tried to find it. Just let yourself write. Doesn't have to be good. Just has to be done. Write stuff such that it's interesting to you; follow some odd strand that makes you laugh. Just write. In the end that's the only thing that matters. Get it written, get it done.
