Editing While Writing

[Ellen]

Hello everyone,

I am an aspiring author currently working on her first novel. I'm currently working on chapter 3 right now, and I am not really satisfied with how it's going. It doesn't flow with the story and it's boring to me. Should I delete it and re-write a different scene or should I make a note to myself to come back to it later? What do you guys do when your in this type of situation?

[Rod]

I think its a personal choice in finding out what works for your personal journey as an author. One of my favourite parts of writing is reading over and fine tuning what I have written. When I am feeling "writing creative" and getting on with the story, I write, when I am kicked back and feel like honing, I proof read and edit. Good luck

[P.J.]

I write much like Rod. When the story is flowing I keep writing, knowing I will get back to it later. When I am not feeling especially creative, I go back and re-read what I have written and work on the finer things, spelling, grammar, etc. Sometimes, after writing a few chapters, going back to one that was not flowing the way you want can help. You will have moved further into the story and it may help you shape your earlier storyline. Good luck.

[Mati]

I've always found the NaNoWriMo mindset the most useful: push forward, don't look back. Sometimes, chapters just don't feel right, but if you slow down and stop for every loose end you can crawl through a book forever. True, you may end up doing more writing in the end because you WILL eventually have to go back and revisit problem areas, but it's often easier to look at those when you know where the rest of the story has ended up.

It is personal choice though. Some people are really good at editing while writing, others need the freedom of errors. I think it's like riding a bike: some people learn by meticulously watching, planning, then eventually executing, while others just need to jump on and fall off a number of times to work it out themselves.

[Tokies]

I wrote my first novel in the NaNo.. style and found at the end i didnt even want to edit it.. it was like my weird mind was like wow. thanks wonderful i wrote it.. done now. dont care what happens to it. lol kinda like i got it out.. and i was just done. My second Novel ive been editing here and there or just flow writing in places. i always hit a point where im stuck so i go back reread and fix things.. by the end im reading to push forward again.. it's a much better story. im enjoying it a lot more as well. It is also not like the outline .. less like the outline then i would have expected. as there is fantasy elements in my story i must be really careful about that. being the star trek, firefly geek that i am. you can run into things that dont make sense and go all weird geeky that way breaking the rules

[Gloria]

Ellen wrote: "Hello everyone,

I am an aspiring author currently working on her first novel. I'm currently working on chapter 3 right now, and I am not really satisfied with how it's going. It doesn't flow with ..."

You might try a couple of things: Ask what is it about the chapter that bores you. Sleep on it. Chances are good you may awaken with a good idea about what to do. Delete the part that bores you and rewrite something that grabs you.