I guess the way that my brain works is that I try to plan out the best ideas, the best scenes, the best actions first. I focus on what excites me and what will function the best. This uses a lot of brain power, and I can only do it for a bit before I get exhausted and end that day’s writing.
After that when I edit, all I have to do is cut and rearrange things, make the dialogue better, stuff like that. (I’m not doing the full prose yet.) At times where I will have to punch up or completely rewrite scenes, that will be tough again.
. . .
I’m writing my first novel, and it’s a blockbuster of a literary mental health work set in a space-age afterlife universe. I have full faith in it, but I’m always learning during the process. I pantsed for part of my first draft/pre-draft, but man does pantsing give me bad results. Now I just semi-prose outline the full novel, until the whole story works.
So among the other things I’ve discovered about writing and about my own processes, my philosophy is this— an edited version of something I read about game design:
- Make it function
- Optimize
- Make it pretty
- Optimize again
That “make it pretty” part is where I do the full, proper prose. That won’t be for a few drafts down the line. I’ve almost gotten my full story finished now though! (Which is v2. “v1” had a lot of story gaps.)
Depends on the person and their process. I do a lot of pantsing and that works great for getting me first drafts. Editing is a lot more difficult for me though.
Some people write more detailed first drafts and some people write bare bones first drafts. Each are going to make editing different and easier or harder.
It’s good you find editing easier but these things are usually personal
Thanks for sharing. My first instinct is always to write out a detailed first draft, but then I find editing it a chore. I think I much more enjoy getting the bones down and filling it out as I go.
With each book I write, the amount of time I spend editing grows.
Revising character interactions often creates opportunities to move the story in new and interesting directions. It can be a real challenge to introduce changes without hurting the pacing or adding complexity. Pacing cannot be allowed to suffer, even for a great idea.
