The record shows I took the blows – And did it my way!

I’m a sucker for workshops and writing tips. Yes, I’ve been published in novel-length fiction for over 20 years. Yes, in those twenty years I’ve had published over 50+ works of various lengths. Yes, most of the time I question everything I do. But there’s one thing I never ever EVER question, and it’s one thing I see over and over and OVER again on these tip lists as something writers shouldn’t do. Here it is. Ready?

I edit as I go.

Whew. I feel better. That’s a load off my chest.

I was writing No Limits when I first heard of fast-drafting. All sorts of life crap was happening at that time and I was behind on the book and I needed to get it done so I could write With Extreme Pleasure. (Note: Needing to get something done FAST is rarely the time to try a new method of doing it.) I thought this is what I need! Head down, words on the page, GO!

Uh. Not so much.

Oh, I went. Almost to the looney bin. You see, the rules for fast drafting are as follows: Vomit the words onto the page and don’t look back until the project is done. Or something like that. Stopping to edit is not allowed. Editing while writing is anathema. No editing. Period. Just the vomit. Words, words, words.

I’m no more able to leave vomit on the page than on the floor. And we have nine animals, ergo, there is vomit on the floor needing to be cleaned up more often than I care to think about.

That was the absolute worst writing experience of my life. I got to the end of the book and almost every bit of it had to be changed. What I wrote in later chapters contradicted what I’d written in the beginning. Which is why drafting doesn’t work for me. (As an aside: When I participate in the #1k1hr writing sprints on Twitter? 1) I never get 1K, and 2) I edit as I go.)

It’s in the editing, not the writing, that I find my story.

Let me say that again.

It’s in the EDITING, not the writing, that I find my story.

Of course it is, you say! That’s why getting the draft done then editing and revising works so well. No. That’s not what I mean.

I find my story by going back to edit what I’ve written every day. Sometimes I find what needs to come next by going back to edit what I wrote two hours earlier. It doesn’t matter how much pre-planning I do, how many acronyms I employ (GMC, BICHOK, WTFBBQ, etc.), the story and the characters come alive with the words. The right words. The words that have been carefully edited to find the truth. The only words that will work for that scene, that situation, that conflict. Words in the point of view character’s voice.

I need that truth to continue the forward motion, to keep the story on track and off tangents. I am writing contracted work to deadlines. I don’t have time to go back and rewrite once I’ve reached The End. Which is why I rewrite as I go. Because when I get to The End, I’m done. Save for the obvious tweaking, line and copy and developmental editing. When I’ve done my job right? Those edits are minimal. (Unfortunately, I haven’t done my job right the last few times and the edits have nearly caused me to throw in the towel.)

Let me tell you a story. My husband and I are writing a book together. Well, actually, we’ve written a book together. It’s the first act of a trilogy, so we have two to go to get the whole story told. The first major brainstorming we did on the story was during a day-long drive from Florida to Texas in 2011.

My husband works contract in the oil and gas industry, so last December he took a sabbatical. He’s back at work now, but during the eight months he was off, we got the book done. It’s in the final clean-up stages now. But no matter how much of the book we brainstormed on road trips and nights in the hot tub with margaritas (and there were a LOT of those), the book didn’t come together until there were words on the page we could edit and play with and dig into to find the REST of the story. We had the luxury of time on this one. And since there were/are two people working on it, there was some fast-drafting done.

But not by me.

I wasn’t on deadline during those months, so I wasn’t working twelve-hour days like I am now. And it pretty much drove my husband nuts that I couldn’t help him on future scenes he was writing because I hadn’t yet found what I needed in the scenes already written but not yet edited. While he was working in the third act, I was back in the first act FIXING and TWEAKING and CUTTING and REWORDING, and you know what? We did find more of the story in those early pages I couldn’t let go of until they were right. The book is nothing now like it was when we sent it to beta readers. And that includes the TRUTH of who the main character is.

And now the drafted part of the book is in the process of being rewritten because of it.

Here’s the thing. There ARE some people who can draft a novel, get to the end, go back and revise pages and gut pages and toss pages and write new pages. I just wish the rest of us got some recognition, not to mention respect, because here’s a truth: THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO CAN’T. Period. End of story.

The words I am writing AT THIS MOMENT determine the very words that come next. And by words, in this case, I mean action, and reaction, cause and effect. Stories have structure for a reason. One thing happens, one choice is made, and what follows is a result. If I don’t know that choice, how can I move forward.

Moving forward is DETERMINED by all that has come before.

It would be easier for me to write a new novel from scratch than to revise one I’ve finished. I can do it.

I have done it, but my brain is not wired for rewriting. It’s wired to edit as I go, to get to The End and tell those characters goodbye. And that’s the thing. When I’m done, I’ve written that story. Revising means new situations, new conflicts, new motivations, and that means A DIFFERENT STORY THAN THE ONE I WROTE. Right now, in fact, I’m adding a story element that is going to give my book a greater emotional complication for one of my characters, but doing so when I’m 40K words in means a whole lot of tweaking of things that’s going to make getting to 90K hell. But at least I figured this out now!

Bottom line.

We all have to do what works for us when it comes to writing.

Editing will always be a part of writing.

How it works for each individual author is a which came first chicken and egg thing.

In the end, all that matters is BREAKFAST!

photo credit: jakepjohnson via photopin cc

photo credit: Important Dee via photopin cc