How to Fix Your Story Without Going Back to the Drawing Board

Monique Desir:

Thanks, Drew, for writing this.

Originally posted on Drew Chial:

The Case Against Editing as You Go

When I first started writing I scrutinized every paragraph the moment after typing. I counted the syllables so I could adjust for rhythm and flow. I checked my metaphors to see if they mixed wrong, I ran every verb through the thesaurus, and I dialed all my hyperboles back.

By the end of the day my word count hovered around the same number I’d started at. Sometimes it was in the n...