What’s the first thing you need to know about editing? Don’t start editing until you’re finished writing.
Really!
I spent a couple of years writing my first novel – only to realise I never got past the first few chapters because I kept going back to play with them.
Occasionally I’d move on a little, but I always found myself going back and reworking/changing/playing with the text in the first few chapters: ‘getting it right’.
It wasn’t until I made a decision to FINISH IT that I actually got the first draft done. What’s more, I’ve heard this same advice from dozens of successful, published authors.
Finish it, first and foremost. Edit it second.
If you get a brand new idea you’re busting to get into an earlier chapter – make a note of it and FIX IT LATER – after you’ve completed the first draft.
You want to change something? – make a note of it and fix it in the rewrite!
Anything more complicated than a global search and replace – fix it later!
In case I’m not clear:
- Write the first draft.
- Edit the first draft.
- In that order.
Don’t start editing until you’ve finished writing or you’ll spend weeks, months, years and even decades getting no further than the first few chapters.
For many months I did the same thing. In the morning I would re-read as much as I could of what I had written the day before, and always would I have something to change.
My progress proceeded at glacial speed.
After a while I realized I would never finish the novel unless I stopped re-reading what I had written.
An added bonus to your advice is that when you finally do return to your writing, which in my case will be 10 months after I started the novel, everything will be fairly fresh. The editing job will be easier.
At least I hope that’s the case.
Thanks Christopher, and so true!
It’s amazing what you ‘discover’ when you haven’t been back to your work for a while. 🙂