Ask Jerry
Time for Editing
Asked by Mia Regula Regula on March 3, 2020
I like the way you set a word goal for each day. But when do you do most of your editing? At the same time as your writing? Before/after? Some other time of day? Do you schedule that as well?
Jerry's Answer
Mia, the first chore of my writing day is to conduct a thorough (heavy) edit and rewrite of the pages I wrote the day before. That helps me catch any fundamental errors that might otherwise require I start completely over, and it also catapults me into that day's fresh first draft writing.
Rough draft writing is VERY different from first draft writing, of course, so I figuratively take off my perfectionist cap and just try to get my story down. I don't worry about editing, tweaking, revision, rewriting, knowing that I can put my perfectionist cap back on the next morning and fix to my heart's content.