There’s really no way around this blog post – everyone’s going to know who I’m talking about.
Jerry Jenkins has written a lot of novels, and at least one movie. He advocates starting your writing session by aggressively editing the previous day’s writing first, then writing your current day’s material after that.
Michael Hyatt disagrees, saying that essentially editing and writing are two different functions, and are different parts of the brain. Editing is a LOGIC function, and done in the left brain. Writing is a CREATIVE function, and is done in the right brain. That’s why left handed people are the only people in their right mind!
If you start by editing, you’re using your left brain. If you’re writing, you’re using your right brain.
No offense to Jerry Jenkins, but it sounds to me like those should be done separately.
I wrote my first three novels by just sitting and writing every day. There’d be some days I’d be in a poking mood. I wanted to poke at the manuscript, and get it right. That’s a left brain logic day. That’s when I edited. It’s a form of procrastination actually. The best time to edit, in my opinion (and this is the habit of most successful authors) is to WRITE THE BOOK…
THEN edit.
Editing is a part of the re-writing.
Indeed, I’m going to be so bold as to say that the edit IS the re-write!
So here’s your Scrivener trick for the day.
Go to your research folder, and create a folder inside that. Name it deleted scenes.
One at a time, move scenes from your chapter into the deleted scenes book, and then go to your scrivenings view (left button) and read your chapter. If the chapter still makes sense without that scene, you didn’t need the scene.
OUCH.
I spend many days writing some scenes, and re-writing them, and polishing. To remove some of those scenes killed me. But my book actually ended up a lot better without it.
Why spend 1200 words explaining how to build a cart with wheels? That really can be done with a sub-sentence. “Carpenter pulled out the parts of the carts that he and Ian built just a month ago.”
17 words verses 1200. I loved the scene. It meant sacrificing a very funny line. But I’d love for my first novel to be done.
And hey, once they’re all done and published… ten years later, I can put out the “Collector’s edition” version, with all those scenes back in there. If I have any fans, then they’ll be interested in reading the original version of the novel, and you’ll end up with the version snobs who say, “Well, actually, I prefer the original version myself…”
Conclusion
When should you edit? LATER. After the book is done! There’s no reason to stop writing while you’ve got momentum going!
