Editing as you go, or save it to the end?

shorty411 · Apr 3, 2009

Hi,

I know many of you are in crit groups and the way mine works is we do about 2 chapters every 2 weeks to crit. Now, each of us handles the crits differently. Some bring in their reworked pages the next time we meet, others just bring in their next chapters and plan on bringing in the reworked chapters at the end. I've been sort of torn between both and was wondering what other people did and why. I'm worried that I'll never finish because I'll get caught up in rewriting, however, after crits, I also can't stop thinking about the things I want to change. So, do you rewrite as you go? And if so, how do you make sure you get to the end? Or do you just plow through, make note of edits and plunge ahead?

I'm a newbie to the boards, btw, so any replies would be greatly appreciated

shokadh · Apr 3, 2009

Typically, I just vomit it all out there and then try to see which parts of it were worth digesting a second time. (sorry about the analogy*coughs*---a bit graphic for some...) Anyway, I suggest you do what works for you, but give it a rest at some point so that you can go back and be more objective. I let my first novel sit for six months before I went back to it, because I just couldn't see it anymore. By the time I went back for serious editing, I had practically forgotten my own story. It was like reading somebody else's book and I was able to see things leaping out at me that I never noticed before. Do whatever works for you. Some people edit as they go. Some people say it's easier to beef up a lean manuscript than to pare down one that's too bloated.

miles · Apr 3, 2009

There's really no right or wrong answer to this. It depends on what works for you. Many would recommend just getting the story down and then editing for obvious reasons: many things will be changed during the rewrite anyway, constant editing messes up the flow, it's easier to see mistakes once the manuscript's completed etc . . ."

Then there are others (the minority for sure) who don't move on until every sentence is as good as it can be. I'm one of those people, but it works for me because I have a detailed outline which is actually closer to a first draft (and the outline isn't edited).

I'd recommend just getting the story down in some form first and then worrying about editing. Whether that's a detailed outline or full draft is up to you. But again, there are very successful novelists (like Dean Koontz) who don't outline and whose first draft is very close to their last.

Danthia · Apr 4, 2009

It really depends on you and the story. If this is your first novel, I'd recommend going forward and getting it written. Until you've completed a novel, it's harder to know exactly what you need to do to it to revise it.

If you've completed novels before, then you have to decide what edits you want to make. If you know you started completely wrong, or the problems you want to fix will seriously affect the rest of the story, there's nothing wrong with editing as you write and getting more feedback. I've started over plenty of time when I knew something was wrong but wasn't sure what.

If the edits are basic stuff and all it'll do is make the prose prettier or flesh out a few things, you might as well just keep writing. You have to polish the entire thing anyway, and you might have better insights on how to do that by the end of the book.

What you don't want, is to get caught up in a "it has to be perfect" trap, where you keep tinkering and never move forward. This happens to a lot of first novel writers. (Happened to me too). Edits never end, even after you sell your book, so don't sweat them as you write a first draft. Do what feels right to get the best story down you can, and worry about making it sound good later.

sticklefidds · Apr 4, 2009

As others have said, getting it finished is the main aim to keep in mind. Your dilemma is an unintended side effect of the crit group, attendance of which is no doubt helpful to you in lots of ways but is bound to get you thinking about the various remarks that were made. If you note down what you think are the most pertinent ones you can come back to them - and the novel - some time later with a fresh mind. Otherwise you can end up not seeing the wood for the trees.

scarletpeaches · Apr 4, 2009

I'm a vomiter. There's no point editing something and moving on because you could later write something that necessitates a change earlier in the novel.

Adam · Apr 4, 2009

I save it 'til the end, otherwise I'd never get anywhere.

ChaosTitan · Apr 4, 2009

Save it until the end. I need to get the story out before I can go back and fix what's wrong, even if it's a major overhaul. I once decided about midway through a novel that I no longer needed one of my supporting characters. He was useless. Instead of going back and wasting time fixing it, I wrote the last half as if he'd never existed. Once the first draft was done, I went back and wrote him out of the beginning.

The more books you write, the more chances you'll have to find out which process works best for you. Some authors edit as they go; others save it to the end.

Memnon624 · Apr 4, 2009

I edit as I go. I also write each scene in layers: dialogue first, then tags and movements, then description. I'll write and polish each scene till I get what I want, then move on to the next. It takes me about 18 months to write a 100-120K word novel.

I also work off an extensive outline (my last one was 37 single-spaced pages).

But, as has been said, you have to find a way that works best for you.

Scott

DeleyanLee · Apr 4, 2009

I've written a lot of books (over 20) where I vomited it all onto the page and finished the draft. I also have a lot of books (over 20) where I've never, ever gone back and edited because the work involved was entirely too daunting. I've learned that I just won't do it.

So now I go back over my writing every scene or chapter or section as soon as it's done. That's when I have the energy and the vision for the work, so that's when I have to do it. Basically, I have to do what most newbies are told NOT to do in order to make it work. LOL! I'm so glad that I finally figured it out.

shorty411 · Apr 4, 2009

Thank you to everyone who responded! I know I have to figure out what's best for me and this really helped. I think doing sort of a hybrid version, as sort of suggested here, will be my best bet because most importantly is finishing so a verbal vomit is definitely necessary, but I don't want to lose sight of anything big that I know I want to change or will affect the ending. But I like the idea of, if something huge does come up, just proceed as if it already happened to the end and then go back and change the beginning to match up.

Thank you to everyone!

Bartholomew · Apr 4, 2009

You're asking the wrong question. There's more to editing than proofreading for grammar errors. You need to establish a hierarchy of concerns, and somewhere at the very top of this list will be "Getting the damn thing done."

Once you're finished (either with the entire work or with an important section) you shouldn't launch immediately into proofreading. You should look at organization. Are the important bits where they need to be? Anything you can fix by highlighting and dragging should be fixed first, simply because this takes the least amount of time. You'll be surprised how often you'll say to yourself, "This needs to happen sooner."

And once that's taken care of, you should check your logic. Make a list of This, therefore that statements about your characters' actions. Any of them that seem shaky in the form of a simple statement need your attention.

Style and grammar should be at the very bottom of your list of concerns. What good is a perfect paragraph if you end up deleting it?

maestrowork · Apr 4, 2009

I've done both. I think basically you need to do what works best for you. For me, though, edit as you go is VERY SLOW because I'm a tweaker. I fussed over things like sentences I didn't like, word choices, etc. and it got to the point when I lost all forward momentum because I kept editing what I had written before. It took me 18 months to write 50,000 words, and I ended up dumping the first 15,000 in the final draft, anyway. In comparison, it took me only 4 months to write the rest of the book.

I've been doing the "write now, edit later" approach with a little tweaks here and there, and so far I've written 90,000 words. Still not done yet, but I'm not unhappy with the progress.

maestrowork · Apr 4, 2009

shorty411 said:
I don't want to lose sight of anything big that I know I want to change or will affect the ending. But I like the idea of, if something huge does come up, just proceed as if it already happened to the end and then go back and change the beginning to match up.

Then do what I do -- put a note in the ms. with HUGE red letters saying, "this has to change and instead, this and this will happen" etc. etc. Put a note in there, and then move on, knowing your new direction, etc.

Then once you're done with the first draft, go back and look through the notes and then fix them.

The problem with "fix and go" is that if you keep changing your mind, if you keep finding places where you need to change... then you will not be able to move forward because you will find yourself stuck in those places, trying to change things and then the changes would affect other stuff... it doesn't end. You may wake up 2 years later and you're still stuck at the 45,000 mark, or worse, you never finish the draft because you keep changing things.

MRevelle83 · Apr 4, 2009

I save editing until the end, unless I'm writing a short story.

Editing as I go would mean I'd never get to the finishing line. Like checking if my shoelaces were tied after every step in a footrace. I can't win like that.

A metaphor for myself.

lm728 · Apr 4, 2009

I edit as I go along, and it's a personal choice.
This is so because when the "feel" of the scene is still in my head, I can mold it to be a good as possible.
However, I don't think I get anywhere doing this. I'm a natural procrastinator.

SarahMacManus · Apr 4, 2009

I can churn out a short/novella from beginning to end, editing as I go, but for novels I need to get it all out so I know where it's really going before I start mucking around with it.

brainstorm77 · Apr 4, 2009

I do mini edits as I move along but will do a overall edit when my WIP is completed. It really does save on time.

Ryan David Jahn · Apr 4, 2009

I end up rewriting every sixty pages or so in order to clean major plot or character contradictions. I find I don't believe my own stuff if it contradicts itself, so I have to fix that stuff before I move on.

That said, I still make myself move forward at a fast clip; I have to write faster than the self-doubt. That means once my prep is done, character sketches, any research I know I have to do, I give myself no more than three months to write a first draft, rewriting as I go. I save prose and dialogue and minor story and character problems for later drafts. As long as the big pieces fit together I'm all right.

Then I go through another four or five or six drafts.

Aggy B. · Apr 4, 2009

With the first draft I try to just get the story out. I do, however, like to reread whatever came immediately before the chapter I'm currently working on. If, when reading through it, I realize even for a rough draft I can't understand what I was doing, I will do some rudimentary tweaking.

In second/third/etc drafts I usually do some editing as I go. This is mostly rechecking whatever I wrote the previous day. Does it really mesh with the tone of the whole project? Was there something I was supposed to add? And so on. I also clean up punctuation and spelling and such that I missed.

But I always (well, almost always) save editing for after the actual writing for the day. That way I maintain forward momentum.

KCathy · Apr 4, 2009

The first time I wrote a book, I saved it all to the end, and it became a mammoth, thankless, painful task that I never finished. To be fair, that was partly because I didn't like how the book turned out as a whole.

This time, I'm starting with a group that requires 10 pages a week of writing, and nets me the opinions of five different beta readers each week. I'm going to try to force myself to edit, with their opinions to help me, before each week's deadline, so that hopefully it won't seem like such a gargantuan task when I reach the end.

Here's hoping it works better for me this way!

mscelina · Apr 4, 2009

Every good story, like homemade bread, needs to rest a bit to make the process more palatable at the end. Write the story, get it down on paper and edit when it's ready...i.e.--done.

Enzo · Apr 4, 2009

I sometimes get ideas halfway through the book that I should be changing the whole storyline, but I resist the impulse. I might tangle with elements still ahead inside the outline, but I still first want to get the whole thing finished, and keep editing for the second draft.

KikiteNeko · Apr 4, 2009

I edit as I go, while it's all fresh in my mind. If I waited until the end I would feel like I had a big mess to clean up and it would be a chore.

I don't know what makes me so sure I'll finish my projects. Sometimes I start ideas and they don't go anywhere, but when I get elbow-deep into a manuscript I somehow know it'll be something I finish.

Olorin · Apr 5, 2009

I used to edit as I went, but then realised, as alot of people had been telling me, that I might get stuck with the first few chapters endlessly being edited, and a completed novel never taking shape.

So, now I have banned myself from looking at any chapter that is cohesive from start to finish. I will finish the first draft, then edit.

I planned my novel in advance, and re-planned it a few times, so hopefully I shouldn't have to do any major re-structuring, but I can already sense that a couple of chapters will have to be removed totally, or removed and replaced. Some things just don't work out, even after you've planned and thought about them for ages!

Editing as you go, or save it to the end?

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