Tips on how to resist revision during a draft?

[FolkloreFanatic]

That sounds almost military. Oh, well.


I really, really need to make more effective use of my time, and it seems like my biggest problem is not what I initially feared it was (too many distractions) but instead the lure of revision while I'm working on a first draft. HOW DOES ONE ESCAPE FROM THIS?

...Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated with myself right now? O.o I'm relieved it's not writer's block, but still.

I keep telling myself not to do it, to just write or transfer my scraps from the road onto Word, but I keep indulging the English student in me and I advance at a snail's pace. Any suggestions?

[Storyteller5]

Two suggestions I have come across recently are to shut off the monitor of your computer so you can't see the type and disconnect the mouse to make cut and paste more difficult. :idea:

[Fishmonkey]

I usually edit as I go, and while it slows down the writing of the first draft, it makes revisions much easier. Editing as you go is not necessarily a bad thing; I would only worry if you find yourself never advancing past chapter 1.

[moblues]

Every day, before I continue with the WIP, I revise only the previous day's work. This way, I not only get back in the flow, but it keeps me from dragging my feet.

I don't know if this is right or wrong –– but it seems to work for me.

Just keep writing, and good luck with your MS.



Mike

[jen.nifer]

Two suggestions I have come across recently are to shut off the monitor of your computer

Hehe. Imagine if you hadn't selected the application window properly and thought you were "typing" away, 'cept when you finally turn your monitor on... you realise all the while you were typing into oblivion.

Um. Not very funny I guess.

[Bufty]

I can't help you Folklore, but revising as I go along is not something I do - or want to do. If I'm in creative mode and the muse is trotting along nicely, it never occurs to me to tell old musey to go take a hike while I switch to the analytical side of my brain and do a spot of editing. What if he doesn't want to come back?

[scarletpeaches]

Reward yourself with a mars bar for every ten pages typed without looking back.

[Sage]

Since coming to this board I do my BIC writing for the day, and after that is done, I'll keep my computer on, & whatever time I spend on my story can be used for adding new things or for editing. I tend to edit as I go. I just rewrote a section, & need to edit my first chapter, but I'm going to do my two hours of just strict writing first. Like moblues, I'll go back & reread what I wrote the day before so that a) I can pick up on any obvious mistakes I made, & b) I know what I've already said & where exactly I was before I start writing today's stuff.

I tend to write whatever sections are calling to me (or from the earliest section I need to write I have if nothing is), so sometimes I'm writing in a section that I haven't worked on in a really long time. In this case, I definitely need to reread what I had wrote before.

But I don't see any reason why you can't go back & edit as you go... just as long as you're writing new things each day too.

[brinkett]

If I'm in creative mode and the muse is trotting along nicely, it never occurs to me to tell old musey to go take a hike while I switch to the analytical side of my brain and do a spot of editing. What if he doesn't want to come back?
I revise as I go along. All that means is that I begin revising before reaching the end of the first draft. It doesn't mean I revise every time I sit down to write.

If musey is around, I forge ahead and write new stuff. If musey has gone clubbing or is away for a dirty weekend, I take the opportunity to edit. That way I'm never idle, no matter what musey is doing.

[FolkloreFanatic]

Hee. No, I'm never idle. Yes, there have been stories that didn't advance past Chapter 1, and those are in a folder somewhere. My mind just keeps going over what I wrote the previous day and yelling at me to "Fix it, damn you!" I try hard not to listen.

Maybe I will try writing with the monitor off...or at least starting up a new document instead of adding to the old one. I like those ideas.

[Monet]

I usually type the first draft of an entire chapter and then do a quick edit while it is still fresh in my mind before I start the next chapter.

Then, I do a more indepth edit of the entire novel at its completion.

[goatpiper]

I don't think revising as you're going is bad...I have problems getting mired in it as you do, but I think it's useful if you can continue to forge ahead while doing so. I'm writing my novel long-hand. I find that I can more quickly edit as I go that way - I can also make lots of notes in the margins if I need to. No computer proggie in the world can equal the virtuosity of scribbling away, imho.

[Danger Jane]

Ooh, I totally know what you mean. It's so baffling sometimes how I can sit at my laptop for three hours without even changing the song that's playing and yet have FEWER words than I had before.

All I can do is not allow myself to scroll up. Set a limit and force yourself to respect it, you know? To be productive.

[cwfgal]

I don't see anything wrong with editing as you go...I do it all the time. And as someone else said, it makes the edits at the end a lot easier and shorter. By the time I finish a first draft, it's very close to an end product. I start every writing session by reading some portion of what I last wrote and inevitably it gets edited. Sometimes the entire session may be spent on editing, other times I may merely read a little to get back into the flow of the story and then spend the rest of the time creating new stuff.

Those works that never got past chapter one probably shouldn't. If you don't have enough enthusiasm for the story to write and/or edit beyond that point, you should consider moving on to something else.

Beth

[Celia Cyanide]

I agree with everyone who said that this is not a problem. It may seem like you get less work done, but you don't. You know you're going to have to revise later, at least some of it. Why not get it done now? If a sentence is screaming at you, "REWRITE ME!" you might as well tend to its needs. Also, I think if you keep going over the work, you will remember it better, and have a better understanding of it as it takes shape.

My professor, who has published several novels, says that he rewrites as he goes, and after he types the last sentence, he never has a problem he can't fix in less then 5 hours.

[FolkloreFanatic]

I guess I never thought of it that way! Makes me feel a bit better. Revision never takes too long, come to think of it... XD

Then again, I usually end up editing for a third time because I like the way I had things in the first place. I just would like to *finish* something substantial. I'm terrible at short stories because all of my plots are thought out in full-length format for some inexplicable reason, with noteable exceptions. IOW, I have at least five novels running, each with somewhere between two and twelve chapters done. *bangs head against desk* Okay, back to work.

[Linda Adams]

I do revise as I go along because the story's changing so fast and evolving that sometimes the early parts really don't match the later parts. I can actually stall out if it falls out of alignment because of that. However, I also have standards for when to do revision. Those might help.

When it's appropriate to do revision:

I have to add something that would be easy to forget if I waited until I was completely done (i.e., foreshadowing)
I finally ran across a piece of information that fills in a research gap I needed for Chapter 4
Later chapters changed the book significantly that chapter 3 no longer fits in with the story
I spot a typo (fair game anywhere in the book; I hate proofreading, so I try to chase the typos out whenever I find them).
Plus anything else that I can identify a specific story-related reason for changing.
When it's inappropriate to do revision:

I have a vague sense that something's not working but don't know what it is
That I have to have it perfect before moving on
It doesn't feel right
Just because
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (making changes for the sake of making changes). This was an expression my co-writer came up with because he didn't like what we called it at work--happy to glad. Every supervisor wants to put their mark on a document so you'll see things where the word happy gets changed to glad.
Essentially, any changes I make have to be on solid ground. I remember at one point ten chapters in realizing that Chapters 1 and 2 were no longer working because the story had changed. However, I did not go back to revise them until much later. Why? Because while I realized that those two chapters didn't work, I also couldn't at that point identify why they didn't work. Once I figured out what was wrong--that solid ground reason for change--then I went back and revised.

[Celia Cyanide]

Then again, I usually end up editing for a third time because I like the way I had things in the first place.

Okay, I got you...that is kind of annoying. I hate it when I change things, and then go back and edit, and realize I was just putting them back the way I had them before. Having said that, I think that problem would still exist, even if you did not revise as you wrote.

[My-Immortal]

Being a stay-at-home dad / writer, I don't have a lot of 'alone' time on the computer, so I try to write new material while the little guy is napping or after everyone else is asleep (like now - I shouldn't be posting! LOL).

I then print out the new pages and carry them around with me (along with a pen), and if the little guy starts playing quietly for a moment or two I take them out and do line edits. Sometimes I only get a sentence or two read/edited at a time, but it's still something. (I also have a notebook handy just in case a scene, or a bit of dialogue comes to mind and I can jot it down before I forget it - I know, I know, I should just get a laptop and keep it out of his reach, but that will be my reward whenever I start making any kind of money writing!)

When I get back to the computer, I quickly type in the changes, and then press onward with the new material.

I don't know if this will help you or not, but good luck with your writing / editing. :)

[kaku]

If the urge to edit is derailing your creative process, all I can suggest is discipline. Put your head down and plow through the draft. Make yourself a promise not to change anything until you finish the first pass.

Kaku

[JackieG]

I agree with the responses in general that say revision isn't necessarily bad as you go along. I think the problem occurs when you're stopping any forward progress altogether.

I tend to revise here and there as I go, partly because I need to regroup my thoughts and decide how to proceed. I allow myself room to back up to a couple paragraphs and check my transitions and flow. But I have (finally) learned that if it's CLOSE, it's good enough for now. And I move on and keep going.

I'm telling you this as a person who spent nearly TEN YEARS fiddling around with eight chapters and calling it "writing a novel". It wasn't until I took myself seriously, and decided the story was worth telling, that I finally plowed onward, writing a thousand words a day (minimum) until that blessed "The End" finally presented itself. Took about seven months, I think.

The really ironic part is that when I finally got to the end and discovered what the story was about, my first few chapters that I spent all those years lovingly perfecting had to GO. They didn't belong in my story anymore.

[popmuze]

If you're talking about rewriting, nobody rewrites more than me. I find rewriting more exciting than doing the first draft. That being said, there are things you can't possibly learn about your book until you've finished writing the whole story. At that point, many an earlier rewrite may not make as much sense and another rewrite will be required.