Approaching Editing
This week has been a productive one, at least over the last 72 hours. After discovering 750 words.com, I have managed to write on there for the last five days. I have rediscovered Morning Pages. I had forgotten how much i liked doing them and how much of a help they are. It’s not work on my work in progress but it just allows me to get all of the baggage out of my head and onto the page. If you’ve never tried Morning Pages before then I recommend them.
As for the first draft of the novel, so far, so good. I have written just over 3,000 words since the beginning of the weekend. My problem now, is keeping the momentum going. As I may have mentioned before, I have a habit of reading what I’ve written too soon after writing it.
One of the questions I like asking other authors, is how they edit. Everyone it seems, has a different system and way of approaching the editing process. Some edit as they go along and some wait until there’s a first draft. Others write many drafts, some write 20,000 words as a skeleton and then build on it.
There is a process as a writer of finding your feet and I am still attempting to find mine although at the moment, I think that waiting for a first draft would suit me better. You can’t edit what isn’t there and I am spending so much time in re-writes too early on and am therefore getting too caught up in the quality of the first draft.
It is of course, your writing journey and one that is unique to you.
If you’re looking for some more tips, I found this article, written by Jessica Majewski really useful. It’s got a lot of tips for how to approach the whole writing process – https://whenyouwrite.com.
How do you approach editing? Do you edit as you go along or wait until there is a first draft? Do you have any advice for people approaching editing for the first time?
by 
I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.
4 Responses to Approaching Editing
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Book Club
Thanks for the comment, Julie. It’s daunting isn’t it. Good luck with your draft. Keep in touch.
750 words is great. 🙂
Hi Laura,
I’m trying to finish the first draft of my first novel too and I have fallen into some of the traps you mention. I began by writing 80,000 words with no real plan in my mind but as I drew near the end, I couldn’t work out how to make the ending happen. I discovered Scrivener at that point and put all my work into it, separating it into parts, chapters and scenes and wished I had written an outline first! I was still no nearer writing the end though and started rewriting the beginning and middle to see if that would help. I have now done this a couple of times and earlier this week, it felt like I was stuck in a kind of Groundhog Day situation.
So, I decided to just press on towards the end, even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be. As Jon said in the comment above and I have read this advice in many other places, it’s important to finish the first draft first! I hope to finish soon and then start the long process of editing and rewriting properly. I am dreading that though. I hope that I will not find it as bad as I’m expecting it to be.
I’m off now to look up 750words.com!
Thanks for this article.
Hello Laura,
I’m Jon Rance, author of This Thirtysomething Life and Happy Endings, both published by Hodder and Stoughton. Editing is for me the most difficult part of writing and it’s where the real work gets done. The way I write is by getting the first draft done as quickly as possible. Write the whole thing beginning to end, don’t re-read except the previous days work to get going again and then when all 80,000 or whatever number of words are done, sit back, read it and then start the editing process. I probably edit ten to twenty times after the first draft.
The way I see it, the first draft is the skeleton. It’s the bones and then with every edit you add a bit more meat until eventually you have the finished product. My first few novels took me a long time, 1 1/2 to 2 years. I was working full-time then, of course, but even now a novel takes the best part of a year from beginning to end. I think a sensible course of action is to write 1000 to 2000 words a day and then you’ll have the first draft done in a matter of months. Then you can start the editing process.
This is, of course, just how I do it. The thing about being a writer is finding out how you work best. You can’t copy other writers because what works for them may not work for you. I don’t plan much for example, while others plan loads. I think though that getting a first draft down is key because it gives you something to work on.
I hope this is helpful and best of luck.
Cheers,
Jon
Great advice Jon. 🙂