A commonly-shared writing tip is “don’t edit as you write.” I understand this advice, and for the novice writer who is trying to finish their first short story or novel, I believe it’s good advice. 

The idea is that you finish a project before you start to polish the project. Actually finishing can be tough (for both the novice and the seasoned writer), and saying “don’t edit till you’ve finished the story” is meant to keep the writer on track. This advice advocates moving forward to the point of writing “The End,” rather than spending time and mental energy on polishing the perfect first page and leaving a story incomplete. 

So yes, “don’t edit as you write” can be good advice for certain people in certain circumstances. But like a lot of writing advice, it’s not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. I edit as I write; in my early days of writing, I quickly learned that the “just keep writing and edit later” thing wasn’t going to work for me. 

Why I Edit as I Write 

I self-edit, revise, delete, and make all sorts of changes while still writing my first draft because, quite frankly, I can’t think straight if I don’t. As I write, new ideas come to me as the plot, characters, and story world develop. (Yes, I outline before I write – sometimes in great detail. But even so, the act of writing generates new possibilities that have to be handled on the fly). 

If there’s a part of my story that I know is messy, or I wrote with a “placeholder” character or event or something in the scene, I can’t continue on with forward progress very easily with an incomplete mess behind me. It might be easier if I were a pantser (writing by the seat of my pants), but I’m not – I’m a plotter, planner, and outliner. I need a relatively clear idea of both where I’m going and where I’ve been. 

My current project is a long, complicated epic fantasy trilogy, so there are lots of details and foreshadowing elements that need to be put into the story in just the right place, at just the right time. Many of these are in the outline, but often I’ll have an idea about how to add or change a little detail after I’ve written well past that point. I make notes on my outline about things to change, but most of the time I go ahead and go back to change, add, delete, or rewrite. Again, it’s the “knowing there’s a mess behind me” thing that bothers me, and having those changes lingering on my mental “to-do” list. I feel better if I know all the previous scenes leading up to the current scene I’m writing are in their best possible state at that time. 

How I Edit as I Write 

Sometimes the edits I make are small, like a quick mention of a character or thing to help with foreshadowing. Or an even smaller edit, like rewording a line of dialogue because it just sounds better. I read a blog post recently where the author called these “micro-edits,” and I think that’s a great term. 

Sometimes when I go back and self-edit, it’s a bigger thing than “micro-editing.” For example, I recently rewrote an entire scene from a different character’s point of view. The scene in question was quite a ways back in the story from where I’m writing currently, but for some reason that scene kept coming to my mind. I re-read the scene, studied the scenes before and after it, and made the decision to change not the events, but the POV character. 

I have seven point of view characters who are telling this story (epic fantasy, remember, so there’s lots of people and lots of stuff going on in different places). I try to give balanced page time to all the characters, as well as choosing scenes that seem most appropriate for each certain character to be sharing their experiences with the reader. 

This scene had two main characters in it, so the sequence of events stayed the same. But I realized that because of the events in that scene, it would make more sense for the other character to be the POV narrator. My choice gave the scene more depth and intensity, I believe. There was nothing wrong with the way I’d written the scene from the other character’s POV, but it was more passive, with that character simply observing the events of the scene. This rewrite made the POV character, and thus the reader, more deeply involved. 

Did this take time and slow my forward progress on the manuscript as a whole? Yes. I spent a couple of writing sessions redoing this older scene when I could have been ticking away at my overall wordcount. But it needed doing, either now or later. The time spent is the same – I just decided to take care of it now, instead of adding it to a long list of “edits to do later” when I tackled the next full draft. 

Edit Now or Edit Later – You Choose  

This editing while I write process may seem tedious to some, and it’s definitely time consuming. I’ve learned that I’m a slow writer (for this reason, and other unrelated reasons). Yes, my current project is long (epic fantasy, like I said), but even so, many other authors could crank out a 120k word draft in a fraction of the time. However, by the time I do finally have a completed first draft, because of all the editing and corrections I’ve made, it’s really more like a third draft, maybe even a fourth draft. 

Yes, I still get feedback from critique partners and beta readers, and yes, I still pay an actual editor to help put the final polish on the final draft. But the bulk of my heavy editing, revisions, and other changes have already been done during the course of the initial writing. 

People keep asking me when the next book in The Light-Whisperers of Kalevala trilogy will be out. Yes, I’ve been letting distractions and procrastination slow me down. But I’m also writing slowly because I’m editing as I go. This first draft is taking a really long time to finish – but when it is finally finished, the book will be close to publication ready because I’ll also be finished with almost all of the heavy editing. 

So listen to writing advice from authors more experienced than you – but also figure out what works for you. My way certainly isn’t the only way or the best way – but I’ve learned that it’s the best way for me. I’ve tried different first draft methods, and learned that my brain needs to edit as I go. Learn what your creativity needs, and go write! 

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