Obsessive editing

It's probably your style of writing. I'm that way. I can't keep writing if I think I'm too far ahead of my editing. When I edit, I might see the direction is straying from what I want. So I tweek it slightly. If I didn't do this until I'd finished the story, I'd have a heck of a lot of work to put it right again.

So I accept my lot. I'm an inefficient writer but I wouldn't feel safe doing it any other way. (Perhaps we're both insane)

On the other hand, I never finished anything until I decided to postpone editing and charge forward with a rough draft, regardless of the consequences. Obsessive editing is definitely good, but don't let it get in the way of telling your story that first time through.

I wrote 280k words on my first novel. Then I found AW. I am now editing, hacking, trimming and tightening. I wish I'd found AW before I started writing.
Never again will I write for 200K+ before I start editing. It's almost too much to handle.

My next novel will be edited as I write.

meldy said:

Anyone else guilty of obsessive editing?

I am still only 20K words into my WIP and am absolutely obsessed with editing it.
Granted it was longer.....til I butchered it.

And I think its starting to slow me up (or its always been slowing me up and I have just realized it?)

Is this just a confidence thing? Will I get over it? Is it normal (or am I insane?)

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If it's restricting your progress then it probably is a problem as for whether it's normal or not - well - some writers polish as they go, others don't.
I sometimes edit a chapter before I start the next but, as I'm not a perfectionist, that doesn't stop me moving on.
It is possible to overwork stuff and to thereby lose story energy. Good editing should increase the drive of the story whereas endless polishing and fiddling tends to dissipate it.
Do what works for you. There is no need to edit compulsively as you go - it doesn't guarantee a better story at the end and lots of people don't work like that. On the other hand, if that is the way you have to proceed then live with it. It doesn't matter how you get to a finished story as long as you get there.

I'm guilty of it but I honestly don't know that I'm really improving my writing by doing so. I constantly go back and read through what I've written and tweak things. This keeps me from getting the most out of writing time. By the time I've finished reading through what I've written and finished tweaking, I have no more available time. I'm trying to focus on moving ahead and just writing, but I still get stuck editing sometimes.

I had a similiar issue with a ms I wrote a few years ago. I wasn't exactly obsessed with editing, but for some reason I felt I had to edit as thoroughly as I could before moving on. The process dragged on and on and on and on . . . Writing became a chore and I had to force myself to continue. Finally I realized, duh, if this is so frustrating stop doing it. Major lightbulb moment. I've learned to just keep going. I go through a section once or twice, then move on. Even if I'm not totally satisfied with it, as long as I can acknowledge that it's better I move on. I can always go back later.

But that's what works for me. If you're frustrated with the continual editing like I was I'd say move on and go back later. Once you lose all sense of forward momentum it can be a total downer. But everyone writes differently.

What might help for obsessive editors is to give yourself permission to go back a certain amount--a page or two--before moving on to new content. Perhaps that way it will satify the urge to revise and each day you'll still see some progress on your book. Just a thought.

I'm one of those people who edit as I write so yes, you're not alone and no, you're not nuts.

I think that Angela's point about giving yourself permission to go back a certain amount before moving on is a good one. I used to paralyse myself with trying to come up with the perfect sentence/characterisation/bon mot. Now I realise that I'm not going to achieve perfection on the first go and what I should be doing is getting to a point where whatever I'm writing does what it's supposed to do and is at a point it can quietly sit there whilst I move forward.

I find that it helps if you're able to structure your day to divide it between editing time and writing time.

In my case, I [try to just] sit down and hammer the words out in the evening and then print them off to read and edit during my lunchbreak. This helps because it means that my brain isn't trying to do two things at the same time so I don't get that horribly panicky feeling that I'm not making progress. Also, being able to sleep on it means I get some perspective as to whether I've written something completely horrific or something that's got the basis of being pretty okay. Finally, it means that I feel like I'm productively working on the novel during the course of the day, so it stays fresher in my mind.

Hope that's of some use.

MM

Personally I've found that if I go back and try to edit too much before finishing the story, I get too sucked in and lose a lot of momentum. I'll go back and make plot tweaks as they occur to me, but I save the major edits until the story is complete.

traininvain said:

Personally I've found that if I go back and try to edit too much before finishing the story, I get too sucked in and lose a lot of momentum. I'll go back and make plot tweaks as they occur to me, but I save the major edits until the story is complete.

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Ditto.

I recently threw away piles of old writings that were in various stages of incomplete because I'd go back and edit the first chapter before I got anywhere near the end. So when I started writing my current book, I decided to keep powering through until I finished. Like traininvain I went back to tweak, but saved the big stuff for the second draft.

I mentioned this in another thread about first drafts, but right now I'm doing revisions for my editor and the changes bear little resemblance to my very first draft. So keep that in mind... don't agonize over the first draft because it will change. And change. And change.

meldy said:

Anyone else guilty of obsessive editing?

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Yes, I do the same thing. I edit constantly. Before I begin writing for the day I go over the pages I wrote the day before and edit those before going on. If I get stuck I keep at it until I'm satisfied, then I move forward. I'm not one of those people who expects their first draft to suck. It might but I don't want it to, so editing is ongoing.
Linnea

Momento Mori said:

...so I don't get that horribly panicky feeling that I'm not making progress.

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I hate that horrible panicky feeling when it strikes. *shivers*

I find myself doing the same things sometimes. I'm working on the prequel to my novel right now and I'll find myself going through and reading random portions of my story and edit it. Of course, I let myself write and keep writing.
Right now, my novel's being editted, and I'm obsessed with wanting to rip it out of the editor's hands and hack away at the word count--180k!--before handing it back to her so she can edit the hacked version. Of course, I will patiently wait and see what she writes. I'm aiming for 100k, but 120k will probably be just fine for me as well!

Angela_785 said:

What might help for obsessive editors is to give yourself permission to go back a certain amount--a page or two--before moving on to new content. Perhaps that way it will satify the urge to revise and each day you'll still see some progress on your book. Just a thought.

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This is what I'm trying now, and it's working well so far. At the start of each sitting, I allow myself to go back a few pages to do some quick editing, but then I force myself to move forward.

Before this, I was 'stuck' at a half-way point. I was in editing hell, going back over those 100+ pages over and over and over.... Partly, the problem was because of the faulty format I had chosen, but it was also because the story had grown too complicated. I had to take some time to reassess things. I finally decided to make some BIG changes, slicing many of the original scene ideas.

Through all of this, I've come to appreciate the 'write the first draft QUICKLY' method. I've rewritten 7000 words this week. I hope to pump out the whole thing by summer's end, with minimal editing along the way.

And, yes, most of it will change eventually anyway, so why kill yourself with making changes right now?

I feel like George Costanza: nothing was working out for me doing things the way I always had, so I just decided to the exact opposite. What's the opposite of pastrami on rye?

That's good to know Gem1122. I wish you luck!

Have you tried NANOWRIMO? I found that was a great way to force myself to not edit and plow ahead.