Should You Edit As You Go?

Should you edit as you go? This is a question just about every writer asks at one point or another. Part of the reason for the prevalence of the question is that the question is in fact complex and contextual. In short, the answer to “should you edit as you go?” isn’t always a simple yes or no.

Popular advice usually insists, “Never edit as you go.” Sometimes this is the most advantageous approach. Other times, however, refusing to edit as you go can lead to a hot mess of a first draft that lands somewhere between “this will take me the rest of my life to fix” and “this is unsalvageable.”

But if you choose the other fork in the road and do allow yourself to edit as you go, you may equally find yourself forever stuck in a morass of perfectionism, in which you never get to have the fun of actually writing and moving your story forward.

Personally, I do edit as I go. I’ve taken this approach on every novel I’ve ever written, and it has served me well. Not only does it lead to cleaner first drafts that require fewer edits at the end, it also helps me course-correct stories as quickly as possible. The alternative, often, would be to knowingly write a broken first draft. For some that might work; for me, it seems like pointless torture.

But I’ve come to recognize that whether or not editing as you go is really the best choice has much to do with each writer’s personal process—which is based on that individual’s personality, strengths, weaknesses, and even unique lifestyle demands.

Should You Edit As You Go? Three Answers

Although the decision of whether or not you should edit as you go is certainly not as black and white as I’m about to present, I do think that if you can identify what kind of writer you are, you will be able to make a more informed decision about what kind of editor you are.

In general, the question of editing as you go has to do with whether you most enjoy being a “plotter,” a “pantser,” or a “plantser.”

Answer #1: Yes, You Should Edit as You Go (or, the Structured Approach)

Outlining Your Novel (Amazon affiliate link)

Are you an outliner, a plotter, and a planner? Are you someone who prefers to know the story before you sit down to write the first draft? If so, editing as you go is very likely your best choice.

For an outliner, an extensive and thorough outline can in many ways be considered the first draft. It is the part of the story where the brainstorming and discovery happens. It’s the raw, sloppy, vulnerable bit where the story is revealing itself to you.

It is also, of course, a time of organization, when you rationally examine the emerging plot to make sure it works. You’re taking time upfront to do your best to ensure all the important story pieces are in place. Ideally, this means that when you start writing the first draft, you will have an accurate road map to lead you through the story, scene by scene.

Of course, there will still always be detours. What Dwight D. Eisenhower said about battle is equally true of writing fiction:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Depending on how successfully you constructed your outline, you should ideally have very few major changes to make by the time you start writing the first draft. Those changes that do need to be made are often less about major plot or character alterations and more about minor tweaks—such as setting changes or the like.

As such, editing as you go when you’re an outliner means you’re less likely to be tempted into derailing your forward progress. Rather, editing as you go becomes more about systematically straightening up after yourself.

Personally, I edit every previous day’s writing before moving on to the next bit. I also consciously take a break after every major structural beat and read over the entire manuscript so far. I call this the “50-page edit,” but that number really depends on how long the book is. If you write lengthy fiction, as I do, stopping every eighth of the book (aka, after every major structural beat) is helpful for re-orienting yourself in the details of your story. But if you’re writing something shorter, you may only need to stop once or twice throughout the process—or not at all.

Unless an outline proves to be fatally flawed, this approach usually leads to solid first drafts that require little major structural editing by the end.

Answer #2: No, You Shouldn’t Edit as You Go (or, the Discovery Approach)

Are you someone who “writes by the seat of your pants,” spontaneously reacting to your inspiration by exploring it through your own prose? Do you prefer to do your brainstorming in the first draft itself, rather than in an outline ahead of time? If so, editing as you go may not be your best option.

“Discovery writers,” or “pantsers” as they are sometimes called, often feel stifled by outlines. The idea of logically planning your way through the entire story before you write it can seem both daunting and disheartening. If your favorite part of the process is the writing—the wild whirl of creativity as you wait to see what happens next—then imposing order and organization onto your story too soon can rob you of both inspiration and motivation. You will almost certainly still need to impose logic and order on your story at some point, but you may be better off waiting until the revision stage instead of doing it ahead of time in an outline.

Because the flow of inspiration is so important to this type of process (and because it is accepted that the first draft will be comparatively messy), it can be counter-productive to stop and edit as you go. Indeed, stopping to review all of the manuscript’s current problems can not only derail you into making corrections before you’re ready but can also discourage you from finishing at all.

The more logic-based parts of storytelling—i.e, outlining and editing—use different brain functions than do the more creativity-based parts—i.e., brainstorming and immersive dramatic writing. Although we can and do switch back and forth between these functions all the time, often we’ll get the best results by isolating our efforts. Indeed, this is exactly why outlining works best for me. It lets my logical brain put to rest as many of the logical problems as possible, so I don’t get distracted while bringing the first draft to life during the creative phases. It just depends on how your brain works and what you enjoy most.

If you know you write best in a creative flow and that this creative flow needs to be protected from your more rational, perfectionistic urges, then you may be wary of falling down the rabbit hole of editing as you go. After all, when there’s a sign that says “Here Be Dragons,” it’s probably best to heed that.

Answer #3: Maybe You Should Edit As You Go (or, The Figure-It-Out-As-You-Go Approach)

Honestly, I rather think this is the answer that applies to all of us because no matter how inveterately we identify with one side or the other of the plotter/panster polarity, we all have to employ all the skills of a writer at some point or another. Those who do this most naturally sometimes call themselves “plansters”—a mix between plotters and pantsers.

If this is you, then you may want to plan some things about your story upfront, but not necessarily every scene. Or you may outline a few scenes, write them, then outline a few more. Regardless your specific preferences, you are probably a generally more flexible person. You’re likely comfortable with both structure and unleashed creativity. This means your best relationship to editing as you go will also likely be pretty flexible. Sometimes editing as you go will be the best fit; other times, not so much.

Again, this is really true of all of us. There have been times in my own writing history when stopping to edit has admittedly been just a procrastination technique so I didn’t have to do the hard work of actually writing another chapter. Similarly, for discovery writers there can sometimes come a moment when they know the story is such a wild mess they simply can’t bear to keep going without first cleaning up after themselves.

This points to how there really is no one size fits all answer to the question of whether or not it’s best to edit as you go. We can listen to the common bits of advice floating around out there, but each of us must decide our own best course based on personal experience and self-knowledge.

Finding Your Own Process (or, Know Thyself)

When we ask “Should I edit as I go?” what we’re really asking is “Is this going to trip me up—one way or another?” As you can see, that answer varies wildly. Editing as you go can be either a great boon or a tremendous stumbling block. Whichever is true for you depends largely on where your own personal strengths and weaknesses fall within the writing process.

Ask yourself:

In what part of the writing process (plotting, drafting, or revising), do you naturally have the most enjoyment and discipline?In what part of the process do you naturally have the least enjoyment and discipline?Which do you feel is more likely to discourage you from finishing your first draft: stopping your forward momentum to edit for a while, or plowing ahead when you know there are problems behind you?How judgmental of yourself and prone to perfectionism are you? If you go back to identify problems, will it rob you of the necessary motivation to finish the first draft?How capable do you currently feel of fixing your first draft’s problems? Can you fix them quickly, or will you get sidetracked by trying to figure out what the problems are?How much discipline and enjoyment do you have in the revision phase? Do intense revisions overwhelm or excite you?

There is no perfect process. If you’re going to write a book, you’re going to have to do the bits you dislike just the same as the bits you love. You’re also, inevitably, going to run afoul of discouragement, inertia, and confusion at some point (probably many points). That’s just part of the wilderness adventure that is fiction writing.

You may well need to experiment a bit before you discover your best relationship with editing as you go. Get familiar with the warning signs that your motivation and discipline are flagging and use that as a gauge for when stopping to edit will help you and when it will hinder you.

At the end of the day, there is no right answer, even just for one person. There will be times when you’ll edit as you go and times when you won’t—and times when you should or should not and miss the signs. Whatever your decision, it’s always reversible. Pay attention to what writing environments create your best work, and listen to you own creative signals to help you find the answer to this question on a daily basis.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Do you usually edit as you go? Why or why not? Tell me in the comments!

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