I used to write a chapter & then edit it, and I would spend hours on a paragraph. I've learned recently, though, to just write. Don't worry about every little detail. Just write and push through. I can always come back & edit later. Now, on the topic of when to edit? Depends. If I'm writing a really long chapter, sometimes I'll stop half way through & revise what I have so far, only because I'm extremely meticulous. I like for things to be a certain way, and I can't stand for things to be out of place for too long. So, I put of editing until I can't stand it anymore, haha.
so you mean you can see what is wrong with a sentence or a paragraph or a viewpoint or anything the moment you have written it? Because I don't always see that immediately. Isn't there anything you become aware of only after a little time has passed and you look at it with fresh eyes?
Super. In my own experience, as deeply involved as I might have been during the time of writing, some details or ideas just don't occur to me until after the story has had a chance to sit in my mind a while. Something about 'maturing over time' perhaps.
Fascinating thread. I used to edit everything, page by page, paragraph by paragraph, and it took me weeks - months! - to ever finish anything. It was sooo laborious. It literally took years to un-train myself from the way I had learned how to write in school to allow myself the freedom of just getting the story down on paper. I'd like to think I've gotten rather good at that, but now I seem to have swung around to the opposite extreme and edit at the end. However, I still do edit as I write. It's an unconscious thing I do as I go along, twirling one way of saying something around in my head before choosing another. I make only minor changes as I write to not interrupt my train of thought, but I don't dwell on anything. If it's important or bothers me, I make a note to myself in the text with what I was thinking and go on. I find it's easier these days to move ahead using the momentum already there than starting cold from a polished page. I don't know, maybe there is some allowance to be more forgiving, or more creative, by just charging ahead? I might end up with a mess of a first draft this way, but at least I know where I've been to better see where I'm going.
I think one should avoid this only if they have a tendency not to ever finish anything they start. If it works, I don't see the harm, but If you realize you keep working on the same story for years and years, and never get anywhere and this bothers you, you might consider changing approach. Better getting to the end and have something to revise than getting stuck with editing the same old chapters again and again and not moving forward.
For me, the answer is a basic yes. Mainly because I think about what I'm writing and where it can lead as I'm writing it. Sure, there are times I've though afterwards, "Oh, if I had done this instead..." - but that can always work in the next story. And, of course, having betas reading it as well does wonders as far as unseen plot holes or character misdirection. But if everyone saw everything at whatever time they did revisions, then agents and/or editors wouldn't be asking for them later.
I think this is a problem with revising overall. Sure, one could get that first draft finished - but if one keeps revising and revising, having draft after draft after draft, then the problem is obsessive revising, not when the revising is done. And I've seen more than one writer who says their final revision is almost completely different from their original - I have to wonder if it's actually a better version or just a different story.
Being a pantser too, doesnt it ever happen that you come up with a better story development later or Do you always stick with the original idea? Does that ever cause major rewritings?
I always stick with the original idea as far as what's been written already determines whether or not the different story development will work. Note, I say different rather than better. If it's that good but won't work with what I already have, I tuck it away for the next story. (That touches on something I've noticed with new writers - they seem to think they only have one story in them, so if new ideas hit, they trash the story and rewrite instead of thinking about it for their next book. Either that or they throw everything but the kitchen sink in.)
does it never occur to you after you've moved on: "that scene/conflict/characterization (Sp?) would be a lot better if I did this way instead? I'm impressed, that takes some faith in your own ideas, something I can't say I have yet. I often come up with different/better ways of showing something/ make a character more relatable or stuff like that even after I've moved on, it doesn't have to be major changes in the plot, just better ways of writing it, and I'm not sure it would help me sitting inactive (or almost) for like weeks or even months until i came to realize that by myself, and maybe not even writing anything during the time. This is interesting! I like how your minds work ) Maybe such a confidence come with experience? I really hope so.
I am beginning to get the distinctive impression we all approach the craft of writing and revising very differently. It's a good thing, otherwise all our stories would feel the same. I'm glad there are so many different processes.
I doubt you will find any writer who, even after a book is published, will not find something they could've done "better". It goes with the territory. And that's why we need to know when to finish that particular project and move on to the next.
Ditto - I feel the same way. And you know, my experience has shown me that I'm always changing, always developing the way I write and edit and think about story in general. I hope I never stop changing because that would mean I stopped growing as a writer.
