The Self Editing Trap

I know many authors fall into this trap, myself included. There’s a lot of pressure to present a manuscript that’s your best polished work so there is merit in going over it until you feel it’s right. What’s not good is rewriting the same scene over a thousand times and never moving from that point.

I have a story or two where I’ve written the opening scene over at least a dozen times and it never feels right. But I know that if i keep that up I’ll never get the story finished.

Write hard and fast is my newly adopted mantra. I know that as long as I’ve got words on the page I can always go back later and do what I want with them. So I get the bare bones of the story down first. On the second read I fix glaring errors and look for plot holes/inconsistencies while making note of where I want to add more detail. On the third read, all the detail goes in. Then I read it all again and probably a few more times after that, tweaking as I go.

And all this happens before it goes to my editor who will point out everything I’ve missed/messed up and more editing and tweaking happens.

So just write your best and get those words down because you can’t edit what’s not there.