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Crutch Week Day Four: Write First. Edit Later
🕑 Added 2024-09-13 05:46:27 +0000 UTCI’ve been writing a novel since 100 BC. It’s pretty good. No, really. Every time I sit down to write it, I go back and read it all again.
Then I spend two hours editing out mistakes.
Next week, I will do the same: Sit down to write. Read what I’ve written. Do edits. Write nothing new. I’ve been doing the same thing since the early Noughties. I have the most scrubbed, washed chapter in history and no book to speak of.
I’m not good at finishing things. I’m exceptionally good at fixing them, so that’s what I do. That’s why I only ever publish short-form content—it’s complete on the day I start it, so it’s easy to save the editing for later.
Every year, writers around the world participate in an event called National Novel Writing Month. They get thousands of words down every day until they have a 50,000 word manuscript. No editing is allowed. No stalling or procrastination shall enter this sphere. That’s what tomorrows are for.
Editing is an excellent practice, but it’s also one of the most damning crutches you’ll ever use. Ask me. My novel will be published in the year 3006 after my ashes have been mixed with glitter and thrown into the Atlantic. Sometimes we procrastinate out of fear of failure. Sometimes it’s fear of success. Sometimes it’s our perfectionism that gets in the way. We’ll get this first page perfect if it kills us.
I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again: You need two frames of mind to write.
Your creative spirit must handle the first draft.
Your inner editor is only welcome after that draft is complete.
If you do both simultaneously, your work will suck Donald Trump’s balls, and nobody wants that. Do what I say, not what I do.
Write first.
Edit later.
