One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve done more of my own writing over the past few months is the benefit of turning down the volume of my inner editor while you’re writing and having more than one pair of eyes going over what you’ve written even before it goes to your editor. I know many of you already employ critique groups or beta readers or both, but the usefulness of more than one pair of eyes has been made more than clear by my recent experiences of reading my own work.
While working on STUCK WITH A STIFF with D.D., I’ve tried to keep my internal editor in check while writing so I don’t end up overriding the creative side of the process. That is not easy. I’m the sort of person who can take ten minutes playing with a sentence until I think it sounds right and conveys exactly what I want it to convey to anyone reading it. In the past, I’ve found it nearly impossible to continue writing if I’m not completely satisfied with the sentence that I’m working on. Needless to say, that can bring the writing process to a screeching halt. It’s also not a tendency that can easily be turned off. However, with some gentle prodding from my co-author, I have managed to (for the most part) muffle my inner editor and just write.
This brings me back to the extra pair of eyes. Over the past several weeks, I have been intensely busy, and, as a result, my writing schedule has been somewhat irregular. At one point, I was kept away from my writing for more than a week. When I came back and began reading what I had written with fresh eyes, issues popped off the page that I would have caught in a second if I happened to be reading someone else’s work. In this case, the extra pair of eyes were my own more than a week removed from when I’d written what I was reading. I’m also not ashamed to say that D.D. has found some issues while proofreading what I’ve written. I’m quickly learning that writing as a team has more usefulness than just bouncing ideas off one another about where you want to go creatively.
I’ve actually asked a few editing clients if anyone has proofread their stories before sending them to me. Some have actually said no. Let’s just say that, in those cases, it was a rhetorical question. The answer was clear before the question was posed. While it’s necessary to tame your inner editor in order to let your writing voice flow unencumbered onto the page/screen, it’s just as important to make sure that your muffled inner (and outer) editor(s) be given time to voice her/his/their opinion(s) on the subject after the creative portion of the process has ended.
Great post, Edit Dude!
It is all about learning how both of these sides of our writing selves fit together for each of our own creative processes.
So yeah, each of us will work differently through this give-and-take.
I also used to be a person who couldn’t write a new page till the previous one was perfect (at least perfect for my eyes), and wow, it took me forever to write each manuscript.
Now, I write each book like I’m the next great Nascar Queen THEN go back and get it all “perfect for my eyes”. And no one reads any of it till it’s done and prior to it coming to you to polish.
That’s just what I’ve learned works for me.
So what works for all of you WG2E-Land Peeps?
P.S. And I’ll admit, I get really tickled finding stuff in your work, Edit Dude/ David Slegg, that you would have given me those damn monster Emoticons for!!!
Thanks, D.D.!
Whatever. You know you love the little green monster.
Dude, great post! I can hear DD cackle as she finds one of YOUR boo-boos. lol
It’s basic: if you’ve written something—anything!—you can go back later & fix it.
It stinks? Fix it!
It doesn’t make sense? Fix it!
It’s filled with typos (looks in mirror! lol)? Clean ‘em up!
You, the writer, forgot your point halfway thru a sentence? Figure it out & fix it!
You, the writer, inadvertently changed the MC’s name from Sue to Françoise? That’s why God—or was it Bill Gates?—created find & replace.
Really, all the first draft horrors get to the last draft polish.
A writer friend once gave me invaluable advice: Hold your nose & type.
And I’m adding to his advice: Later, go back & fix it.
Have a good day, everyone!
Thanks, Ruth.
Sounds like some sound advice. I’ll keep that image in mind.
Good mornin’, Edit Dude! Thanks for the post. I can relate. I know from experience that having a fresh pair of eyes read something even as short as a press release can be beneficial. Sometimes, I ‘m so certain of what I want to say and think I wrote that I don’t notice a missing word. Other times, I’ve read and read and read the sentences so many times so recently, it’s impossible for me to see them with a fresh set of eyes. Happy writing!
Thanks, Tamara.
I’m bad about continuously rewording a sentence until it sounds perfect. I know from personal experience how much time that can suck out of your day.
One of the things I love about writing with my DH is exactly what you pointed out — having two sets of eyes on the work before it even reaches the editing stage. Because we’re opposites, we’ll each catch things that are wrong or need attention in the writing, the plot or character development that the other misses. Sounds like you and D.D. balance each other in a way similar to Roy and me. He is fast and furious and unafraid to fill a blank page with first draft slop. I’m more timid, contemplative, detail-oriented, but have a bad habit of self-editing my writing into a standstill. So, thanks, David, for reminding me about shutting up my inner editor.
Hi, Alicia.
Sounds like you and your DH have a system that works great for you. Wishing you both all the best and continued success.
Great point! “When I came back and began reading what I had written with fresh eyes, issues popped off the page that I would have caught in a second if I happened to be reading someone else’s work. “
Thanks, Lois!
Good post and great points. I read somewhere (paraphrased) You can’t edit a blank page. Write, keep your flow and get it down. It can be edited when you are finished. Good advice I find difficult to follow, as I do an edit on the last chapter each time I sit down to write to get my head back into the flow.
Hi, Nancy.
I love the saying about not being able to edit a blank page. So true. I like the idea of going over the previous chapter before starting the next one. I’ve tried that and it seems to work for me.
I’m one of those painfully slow writers who wants to polish as I go. But with every re-read, I find either errors or something that needs to be re-phrased. I absolutely depend on other eyes–my critique group, and finally an editor. One thing I’m working on is reminding myself that anything I write can be changed if it doesn’t work. I don’t have to get an emotional reaction or even a plot point right the first time.
Hi, Judith.
I think we must have been separated at birth. You could have been describing me.
Great post! Sounds as if you are getting your own rhythmn going with your writing……keep up the good work.
Thanks, Jeanne!
My cp and I work well together from the standpoint we come from two different backgrounds. I had kinda a Little House on the Prarie upbringing in the country, and lets just say her city childhood was MUCH different than mine. So we see things differently and are able to offer different viewpoints the other may not have considered. The funny thing is, for all the differences we thought we had in life and our writing, when our Welcome to Redemption series came out where we each wrote 2 of the 4 stories, we had numerous reviews who said the stories were seemless and seemed written by the same person. It totally floored us.
I always try to let my work sit for minimum couple days (week to two weeks is better) and then do a full read through before turning over to another set of eyes. And I still miss stuff.
Hi, Stacey.
Sounds like you’ve got a good thing going with your cp. Best of luck with your writing.
I always write the first draft from start to finish. If I think of something I want to add then I will write a note and put it in the file with the ms. Once I finish that draft I will add any notes and also now highlight different aspects of the ms eg dialogue in pink, emotion in red. I will read through it, making a colour blob where I think it needs more of something until I finish that draft. Next draft will be adding words where I blobbed it. Then add any more notes. Last draft will be reading it aloud to find any errors, and there usually are. Then it goes to my editor, who will find errors and things that need changing.
Hi, Julie.
That process sounds like it was developed over a long period of time with a lot of elbow grease. Wishing you all the best with your writing.
Good advice, Mr. Edit Dude. It’s so hard to write when you are listening to two voices in your head: the creative voice and the editor voice. And that editor has a much louder, more obnoxious voice, too! I guess it’s a matter of ignoring the obnoxious one. That and not looking back. Eyes and mind forward!
This is definitely my biggest challenge. It’s much more fun to edit the previous writing than plow ahead into the unknown. Kind of scary, actually–that blank page.
Thanks, Dean. (I think)
Why does the editor have to be the one with the obnoxious voice?
Just kidding. You’re probably right about that. However, I do try not to sound like too much of a pedant when interacting with writers.
I use the #key. I can’t remember who told me this but when I’m creating and hit a word or a sentence that doesn’t work I # it. This shuts up my screaming inner editor. It basically says ‘I hear you and am listening but need to move on’ and for some weird reason it works. Then after the first draft I do a search and destroy of every # key and go through them one by one. No idea why it works but it does.
Great post.
Great advice! I totally needed to hear this right now. My inner editor has been driving me crazy lately and keeping me from moving past page 130 in my WIP. With all the promoting I’ve been doing, my left brain is in overdrive and my creative side has been completely squashed! The perfect time to let my critique partners jump in. Thanks for the reminder that I’m not alone in the process!
Great post, T.E.D.!
It points out the different ways that people approach things, and as an educator, that’s always been key to me.
Stopping to spend ten minutes on a sentence is something I would find very difficult. When I write, I’m being led by the writing…not the other way around. At least, it feels like that: I don’t know where the story is going to go, and I can certainly be surprised by what my characters do and say. I may have an end point in mind, but not usually how I am gong to get there.
That’s not better than working on each word carefully: it’s just different.
One of things I do is work with clinicians on time management. If they can do it, one thing that helps them is not to correct spelling and other errors while writing a note. Write the note, then fix it. The slow process is to read each sentence as it is typed and fix each error as it occurs. The faster process is to write the note, then use the spellcheck, then read it for non-spellcheck errors.
One reason for that is that it can take a bit of doing to get going on the flow again. I would run into that problem if I stopped to polish a sentence while I was building a paragraph. Doctors can also be interrupted at any time, and they may find it more difficult (and time consuming) to get back to the point in the narrative and continue the idea tree upon return…it might require reviewing the chart again, for example.
One thing about a second set of eyes: using your ears as another modality of review can also be very helpful. I’ve heard from several authors who use text-to-speech to review what they have written. It’s a different sort of processing, and can give you an interesting editing function, regardless of whether or not anyone will use text-to-speech with your book eventually. Simply reading your work aloud, or having others read it aloud to you can also be effective.
My inner editor is pretty quiet. Occasionally she’ll say (her name is Catriona, by the way), “This scene doesn’t work!” But I think because my first novel was written during NaNoWriMo, she sort of knows that if something’s a first draft, you just have to get it out on paper.