[Dave Dykema]

I find when I go back to it too fast I miss typos.

I still read it as I think I wrote it. What I mean is that words or articles are sometimes missing, or I spell something like "hit the breaks" instead of "brakes."

 

[vault2008]

A couple of months at least. I need to try and remove myself from the story as much as possible before I go back. I feel way too biased if I don't, plus it's easier because once I'm done with something, I'm usually exhausted so it makes it easier to put it down for a bit.

 

[unkownwriter]

Um. I don't. I cycle back through as I'm writing, and when it's done, it gets a final read through for typos and formatting, then that sucker gets published. I've found that I absolutely cannot go back and "edit" after I've written something. It makes me ill to even think about it, and I tried to work like this for years, to the point I didn't want to write anymore.

Thankfully, I read Dean Wesley Smith's blog posts about "writing into the dark", and my potential career was saved. I realized this was how I'd taught myself to write, it was what worked for me, and I went back to it. Now I'm happier, I think my work is worlds better and all I need to do is stop procrastinating and get to it. Dang it.

 

[JosiahUpton]

I quasi-edit it as I go, reading back over what I just wrote for that day, fixing any glaring errors. Once the first draft is done, I go right back at it. If I do "rest", it's when my beta readers (AKA my wife and other family members) go over the second draft, and I await their opinions/suggestions.

 

[Jacob Stanley]

Um. I don't. I cycle back through as I'm writing, and when it's done, it gets a final read through for typos and formatting, then that sucker gets published. I've found that I absolutely cannot go back and "edit" after I've written something. It makes me ill to even think about it, and I tried to work like this for years, to the point I didn't want to write anymore.

Thankfully, I read Dean Wesley Smith's blog posts about "writing into the dark", and my potential career was saved. I realized this was how I'd taught myself to write, it was what worked for me, and I went back to it. Now I'm happier, I think my work is worlds better and all I need to do is stop procrastinating and get to it. Dang it.

I had the exact same experience. DWS helped me get back to a way of writing that's more comfortable for me.

I think editing as you go gets a bad rap sometimes because some people think it hampers creativity. For me, that's actually not true. Going back over a scene repeatedly is a semi-hypnotic process that gets me deeper into the zone. I gradually sink into the scene and experience it more fully, which allows me to flesh it out and come up with all sorts of little touches that make things work better. I've found that the trick is to be relaxed as I do it, and not allow myself to get frustrated. It's better for me to focus on the little ways I can make my draft better, rather than beating myself up about the little mistakes I find. It's partially just a difference in perspective, but it matters.

During the period when I taught myself to write straight through, I learned some about some very valuable things, including freewriting and sprinting. These are still useful tricks that I bring out when I'm in the right mood, but those scenes get cycled over too, several times, usually long before I finish the first draft.

Dean Koontz also cycles, sort of. He works one page at a time and meticulously polishes that page before moving on. It's interesting to read his thoughts on the subject. He basically agrees that editing while he writes improves his creativity because the more time he spends with each scene, the more ideas rise to the surface.

 

[Krista D. Ball]

I find it makes no difference to my editing. It is always my book and I never truly have 'fresh eyes'. After all, I wrote it so how could that happen. I am emotionally invested in all my work. I edit both while I go and again after finishing then send it to an editor.

Yeah, agreed. Usually the "rest" isn't about the story and about me just wanting a rest.

 

[sstroble]

I think editing as you go gets a bad rap sometimes because some people think it hampers creativity. For me, that's actually not true. Going back over a scene repeatedly is a semi-hypnotic process that gets me deeper into the zone. I gradually sink into the scene and experience it more fully, which allows me to flesh it out and come up with all sorts of little touches that make things work better.

Oh yeah!

 

[dorihoxa]

I let mine sit for at least a month. When I'm into a story, I tend to read it by memory and I often don't see glitches, things that I know (obviously) but the reader wouldn't be able to pick up. When I give it the second read, it's like a whole new book and I can see exactly what needs to be fixed. Plus, it's kind of fun to be surprised by details you forgot you put in there But that's just me.

 

[Parker Rimes]

Preferably I'd let the first draft rest while I pounded out the first draft of the next novel. Then you'd come back to it extremely fresh and probably a better writer as well. And if you're working on a series, you'd know your characters so much better.

 

[jaehaerys]

No rest. I edit as I go.

 

[Adrienne Lecter]

I usually edit as soon as I'm finished, sometimes even while writing (editing the exported earlier doc on my iPad, then import those chapters back into Scrivener). The only downside that has is that my mind is still rather blind to errors it loves to skip over because it remembers what I wanted to write, rather than pick up on what actually made it onto the page. I do a last pass before publishing with text-to-speech, that usually catches the worst that my editor and proofreaders have missed and still needs weeding out (like repetitions)

 

[Cxxxxxxx]

Thankfully, I read Dean Wesley Smith's blog posts about "writing into the dark", and my potential career was saved. I realized this was how I'd taught myself to write, it was what worked for me, and I went back to it. Now I'm happier, I think my work is worlds better and all I need to do is stop procrastinating and get to it. Dang it.

Yes! Writing into the dark works wonderfully for me. I have to push through the terror of flying blind, but it pays off in unpredictable plot twists. For me, it's that fear that can cause the procrastination, which is the main glitch in the process, as far as I'm concerned.

Unlike Dean, I don't mind reading my own writing, so once an edited-as-I-go draft is complete, I immediately read it through very fast on my kindle, just to make sure everything is in order. Then it goes to beta readers, and it's during that 4-6 weeks that I get some distance from it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Carradee]

Also...I think as writers mature and write more, get really pro I guess - they just know this stuff - that is, what they're doing. There's no reason for it to set, they're not going to catch something next month they don't see now, setting it aside just slows down production.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Agreed with a caveat. Depends on the book.

[...]

I can kinda tell in my gut.

This. It's very much dependent on the work. Sometimes I don't wait at all. I have one that'll have sat for a year or more before I get back to it--because I have to draft other related stories before I can finish hammering out that one.

Once I get to that point, though, the series should be a lot faster to draft and release, for various reasons. (Major one: It'll be a lot of "Yay! Success!" stuff.)

I cycle back through as I'm writing, and when it's done, it gets a final read through for typos and formatting, then that sucker gets published.

I do this when I can, but not all my writing comes out in such a way where that'll work. I do edit as I go, though. (It's faster for me. I've timed it.)

Sometimes I draft something and it just…doesn't work. For example, I had a short story that I could tell had parts in the wrong place and such, and I ripped it apart and restitched it back up into what I wanted. I had another that kept having "false starts" until I realized that I was conflating 3 separate stories with the same characters. I now just have one more story to finish writing, and I'll be done with that.

I also have some projects, mostly from when I was a newbie teenage writer, that pretty much get or need to get the illlogic fixed. (Suffice to say that I, for reasons outside my control, had a flawed perception of mature behavior, of reasonable/logical reactions, and of what constitutes genuine aid, support, encouragement, and apology.)

For some stories, the that's meant fixing the characters (motivations, reactions) to fit the intended plot. For others, like A Fistful of Fire, that's meant fixing the plot (actions, reactions) to fit the intended character. But as a result, I actually do tend to be best served by stitching in scenes and such from the original.

I have one old project where I need to dig up the original first draft, to use that as my foundation, because I wrecked it by trying to follow what I "should" do as a writer in later drafts. The style needs to be Robin McKinley meets Wuthering Heights, not the conventional active arc.

[wry smile]

Yes! Writing into the dark works wonderfully for me. I have to push through the terror of flying blind, but it pays off in unpredictable plot twists. For me, it's that fear that can cause the procrastination, which is the main glitch in the process, as far as I'm concerned.

I actually need to know something about where I'm headed, even if it's just a mood. Some stories need more destination details defined than others.

I have no problem producing unpredictable plot twists, though. Probably with reason. (I have much experience witnessing manipulative social games.)

 

[pdworkman]

I do an immediate straight-through read to catch any glaring plot holes and to make notes on things I need to consider in the next draft. Then one month to season before looking at it again with fresh eyes.

 

[JRTomlin]

No rest. I edit as I go.

Same here. That if I wait a while to look at my ms that I won't still know it by heart just doesn't work for me. There is no point at which it isn't still my own work that I can look at as though it isn't. That is what an editor is for.

 

[Paul B]

I tend to underwrite my first draft (little or no descriptions, random characters appear in conversation, etc). Since my second draft is to fix that, I do it right away, so I can still remember where the heck that scene took place and who was there.

The I deliberately let it sit a couple weeks before doing the third draft (with editing software) and reading the entire story aloud. Waiting to do the third draft lets me see it with fresh eyes.

 

[Shelley K]

I'm another one who doesn't wait. But I've been editing all along anyway.

 

[SeanHinn]

I edit while I write, so... 0 days?

Seriously, nothing gets you in the mood to write more than editing the chapters you wrote the day before.

Absolutely! For my first book, I found a great system. I will write a chapter, give it a once-over, then write the next one. Rinse and repeat.

I will then email it to myself, and read it when I go to bed at night. I take a screenshot on my phone when I find a mistake/awkward passage/unrefined idea, then look through all my screenshots the next day, fixing stuff. Then I read it one more time, and then usually by that point, I can't WAIT to start writing the next one. I then give what are essentially "second draft chapters" to my editor (who happens to be my wife and the smartest, most detail-oriented, most well-read person I have ever met,) she prints it out and redlines it for me. I stick it in a drawer, and when I finish a "part" (half a book, the way this series is going), I go through it.

This way, by the time I am done with the book and ready for the "real" edit, 95% of the mistakes are already fixed, and now it's just prose improvement and consistency checking.

Then we edit it again. And argue about commas.

Then once more.

 

[pdworkman]

I edit as I go as well, but I'm not sure why that would conflict with letting a manuscript season after the first draft. I have a pretty clean first draft, but certainly not perfect. And I do need to remove myself from the story for a while to look at it with fresh eyes to catch any inconsistencies or anything that was in my head that didn't actually make it onto the paper.

 

[Carol (was Dara)]

Everyone has to find the system that works best for them. Me, I'm another non-waiter. I don't pause until I'm finished with the whole process.