Don’t Edit Before You Write: 7 Steps In Thoughtful Revision

You lean back, take a sip of your coffee and it’s cold because you’ve been writing for so long. You sip it anyway, a consolation prize to celebrate that you finished drafting your novel or your short story. Woo! You totally should celebrate. Many people get stuck in their first thoughts and this “stuckness” prevents them from ever actually having something to give to someone else to read.

Many writers ask the question about how to edit. I’ve asked it, too. It’s a great question to ask. An important question to ask. But what can be troubling is when writers ask the question about is when they are asking. Usually writers ask about editing too soon. Many times before they’ve even gotten their first draft words out.

While there is nothing wrong with asking the question, editing too soon can stunt the growth of the over piece of writing. From years of performance education or trying to please important adults in our lives, we want the first draft to be perfect before we’ve even written anything. This fear of getting imperfect words out stops us from writing.

1. Get your first thoughts out. (Your first thoughts, not your perfect thoughts.)
   Allow yourself to express your ideas in a messy way. Through paint on the page and give yourself something to work with. Give yourself the freedom to think on the page. Meandering helps you to find the story you are telling.
   
   Even if you’ve done significant planning and outlining in a pre-writing stage before you have done any free writing exercises, there is still some wandering thoughts that will spill onto the page before the crystal clear idea appears.
   
   When we try to start writing with one editor on our shoulder and one art on our other shoulder, the artist is so scared of the editor that she will say the wrong thing and make the editor mad. This instigates feelings of paralysis.
   
   So, before you undergo editing, allow yourself the gift of wearing one hat at a time. First, wear your creative writing hat. Once you’ve written your first thoughts and put what you think is the majority of your main idea out on the page to read, then put your editing hat on.
   
2. Read your whole piece over with a critical, but non-judgmental eye.
   Ask yourself some questions once you have an overall idea of what you have to say:
   a) What am I actually trying to say? What is the question I am trying to answer by writing this?
   
   b) What is the main point of this story/narrative/essay/thesis?
   
   c) Does what you’ve written add to that which you’ve determined is your main point? If yes, keep it. If not, get rid of it.
   
   If it feels too frustrating or scary to actually press delete forever on something you’ve written, even a few words here and there, don’t worry. You have options. You can either save a new version of the draft, or you can copy and paste your little sweetie words that you get rid of into a separate, new document to save for later in a different piece.
   
3. Do a second read through with a closer, more critical eye.
   If your previous reading was assessing the situation and raking through what you wrote, think of this reading as using a large bristled brush to go through it all a little more up close.
   
   Ask yourself questions like:
   a) Do I need these words? Or, do I just want them? Why am I attached to them? Why do I want to get rid of them? What do they contribute to the main point? Where might they add confusion if they are left in? Where might they bring clarity if taken out?
   
   b) Do I love these words? Or, do I just like them? Why do you love or only like them? What could you write instead that you might love it? How can you sharpen what you’ve said by altering a single word or amending a phrase?
   
4. Determine what works and what needs improvement.
   a) What aspects of this piece flow well and which have gaps that don’t make sense or need more explanation? Make notes of this to do additional free writing on the side to add to the large piece. Set aside time when you can put your creative hat back on, so that you don’t have to write with your editor paralyzing your creative process.
   
   b) What would happen if I did (blank) instead of (blank)? Think about going to the eye doctor, “Better with 1 or 2? 1 or 2? Or the same?” Sometimes playing around with language is necessary to be able to hone in the exactness of language required to communicate how you want to.
   
5. Reassess whether you are saying what you want to say.
   What if you simply read what you have and then opened up a fresh document and rewrote it from memory? Chances are if you have written it from memory, the main points and important parts are there. Try this. Read a scene or the full story down and distill it into a paraphrase. If you aren’t able to paraphrase, then there is still work to be done on clarifying your message. If you can paraphrase, then on your next read through you can have even more confidence in what needs to stay and what needs to adjust.
   
6. Think of your audience and use specific language to suit their needs.
   You can always go back to add more vivid details and specific imagery or cut it out when it gets too fluffy.
   
   Reading juvenile fiction is a great way to learn getting straight to the point with precise and direct description. Kids want to know what’s happening next and next and next–fewer, punchier, weightier words are more effective to get on with developing the story.
   
   Reading romance novels can be a great teacher in writing generally fluffy, descriptive language. Typically women (not always, though) want to feel everything that is involved within a romantic story. The details are important. It’s an escapism tool. Romance writers want to provide a satisfying place to escape to, within their story. Scenes tend to use more words, drawn out descriptions, and adjectives with a multitude of words which allows the reader to stay in the moment for longer.
   
   In this read through, determine who your audience is and whether the manner in which you’ve written suits them. Adjust your language accordingly.
   
7. Read it out loud.
   Often our brain fills in the gaps and makes sense of nonsense for us when we are quiet, but when we read it aloud (as if) to someone (the audience we’ve determined in step #6), then we can hear what it actually sounds like. We can listen for how that reader would interpret what we are saying.
   
   Writing for a reader is different than writing for ourselves. We know what we mean and we can leave it at that. But, does our reader know what we mean? Sometimes we have to adjust our language. Consider the different ways you’d explain something to a five-year-old or your 95-year-old granny.

While it is tempting to try to be efficient in the free writing process by not writing freely, I strongly urge you to resist that temptation. Don’t edit before you write. Maybe this technique of editing as you go has worked for you in the past, but I believe (from my own writing experience and from watching others use these strategies) that allowing yourself the freedom to get the words out provides better writing over all.

Yes, some of the words in the free writing process will be garbage and you may be tempted to tell yourself you’re such a rubbish writer, but don’t. Be kind to yourself. Take your editing hat off and firmly secure your artist hat and allow yourself to express. Yes, even in a work of non-fiction. Take the limits off of yourself and go through these steps.

When we allow the floodgates of creative writing to wash onto the page, yes there is a bunch of not-so-great writing, but it also allows that magical gold goodness to come out, too. When we sensor ourselves, we don’t get to distinguish between the garbage and the gold. We slow the flow on all of our words.

If you are in the middle of a writing project and you’re stuck in an editorial mindset that you think is hurting your creative flow, I’d love to talk with you. As a creative writing coach, I work with people who are determined to become the writer they’re made to be. It’s a privilege to get to come alongside writers, young and old, experience and inexperienced and help take them to the next steps of audacious, prolific, and resilient writing. If this sounds like you, let’s talk.

Book a Discovery Call with me today to see if working together with me as your coach is your best next step.

Happy writing!