Fear of Editing?

[matt0044]

It always seems like whenever I think about writing my rough draft, my mind is filled with fear like, "what if I screw up so badly that no amount of editing can fix it?" Well, I don't think those words but that's how I'd describe my worries. And yet when I WRITE the damn draft, the words just flow out and I can think, "eh, I can fix it later" when I make a bit of a misstep.

What is with me?

 

[Legacy]

You're fine. I think a lot of writers go through this.

For me, my rough draft is the easy part. I begin a chapter by simply planning out loosely what I want to accomplish in said chapter and just write. I don't worry too much about editing as I go, I just put it down on paper... er world processor. Then, after I've laid that down, I go back and reread what I've written and correct things like word usage, the flow of the prose, the grammar, etc. as I go.

It's way easier on the mind to edit things after they are already written, at least for me.

 

[AetherX]

Something I've learned from music production: it's really easy to just say "This part isn't great, but the only way to fix it would be to rewrite it, and I don't want to do that." If you settle for less, you will get less. If you write something that's terrible, there's nothing wrong with scrapping it entirely and starting over again. I have several MS Word files containing the remnants of multiple chapters that I had written start to finish that were cheesy, boring, and poorly written. Rewriting entire chapters took time, but was VERY worth it in the end.

In short, you can always fix it later.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Legacy's approach is basically my own. I won't do any editing until I finish a chapter, whereupon I will go back, reread the entire chapter, and make whatever corrections I feel are necessary. When I finish a new chapter, I also tend to go back and edit both that chapter, and the chapter before it once more as well.

 

[matt0044]

What about an entire fanfic you write out in a notebook and finalize on Microsoft Word? Not just a chapter.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

What about an entire fanfic you write out in a notebook and finalize on Microsoft Word? Not just a chapter.

As in a one-shot? Same principle applies. Finish it, go back to the top, and reread with my editor hat on. For one-shots, especially long ones, I may do this an additional time or two.

 

[matt0044]

What about an entire fanfic you write out in a notebook and finalize on Microsoft Word? Not just a chapter.

As in a one-shot? Same principle applies. Finish it, go back to the top, and reread with my editor hat on. For one-shots, especially long ones, I may do this an additional time or two.

No... I meant as in a full length journey fic based on BW and BW2. One that could possibly span the length of 200 chapters. Sounds impossible, right? I mean, to call it "overambitious" would be an understatement.

But you know? I've been wanting to write it for year and that desire hasn't died out. And it won't be anytime time soon. Despite the headaches and insecurities about it, I still try to move forward with it.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

What about an entire fanfic you write out in a notebook and finalize on Microsoft Word? Not just a chapter.

As in a one-shot? Same principle applies. Finish it, go back to the top, and reread with my editor hat on. For one-shots, especially long ones, I may do this an additional time or two.

No... I meant as in a full length journey fic based on BW and BW2. One that could possibly span the length of 200 chapters. Sounds impossible, right? I mean, to call it "overambitious" would be an understatement.

But you know? I've been wanting to write it for year and that desire hasn't died out. And it won't be anytime time soon. Despite the headaches and insecurities about it, I still try to move forward with it.

Have you started to write it already? Especially with longer fics I think the method of doing editing after finishing each chapter or section or whatever is especially important.

 

[matt0044]

What about an entire fanfic you write out in a notebook and finalize on Microsoft Word? Not just a chapter.

As in a one-shot? Same principle applies. Finish it, go back to the top, and reread with my editor hat on. For one-shots, especially long ones, I may do this an additional time or two.

No... I meant as in a full length journey fic based on BW and BW2. One that could possibly span the length of 200 chapters. Sounds impossible, right? I mean, to call it "overambitious" would be an understatement.

But you know? I've been wanting to write it for year and that desire hasn't died out. And it won't be anytime time soon. Despite the headaches and insecurities about it, I still try to move forward with it.

Have you started to write it already? Especially with longer fics I think the method of doing editing after finishing each chapter or section or whatever is especially important.

Oh, I started about a year and a half. I just want to write the rough draft ALL out (writing by the seat of my pants) and then edit it, even overhaul certain parts.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Oh, I started about a year and a half. I just want to write the rough draft ALL out (writing by the seat of my pants) and then edit it, even overhaul certain parts.

In my experience, waiting till you're totally done to start editing can get really overwhelming, especially if the work is particularly long. I have a few years-old drafts that are just massive and I can't bring myself to edit.

 

[Life]

If you only want to go back an edit when you're completely done, I recommend that you don't overwhelm yourself and set limits as to how much you edit each day.

Seems like it would be easier than trying to read 200 chapters at once.

 

[Drakon]

I'd like to point out that there is such thing as too much editing. As a rule, when you're editing, you're polishing and reworking, not completely remodeling.

 

[PiccoloX]

Half my RP posts have an "edited" sticky on the bottom. I write the story down, but after posting it and reading it back I'll spot flaws. Nothing big, grammar and spelling errors mostly. Such things are only single forum posts though. If your rough draft is for an entire story you may wanna proof read each chapter several times before going on to the next. If you decide to change something later you can tack it in, wether it's editing a sentence or adding a paragraph or two.