Day 109: Editing as I write = lower stress
I woke up with a terrible migraine yesterday, so I spent most of the day in bed. But the extra sleep did my body good because I got up feeling better. I got a little writing done, but not very much, so I decided not to post yesterday.
Today I feel better--no headache, and IBS is a little uncomfortable but not too bad. I'll see how much writing I can get done today.
***
One thing I noticed today while writing is that I am more relaxed as I'm writing. When I usually do a sprint, I think I lay pressure on myself to write as fast as I can. But when I'm battling monsters, the time limit is very generous so I am writing at a more easy-going pace. I will fix a sentence that seems weird, or I'll look up a word in an online thesaurus.
Usually when I'm sprinting, and especially when I'm dictating, I'll just leave a note to myself to look this up later, fix it later. I heard something like this once on a podcast: Sprinting Camy is leaving Future Camy things to do.
The problem is that Future Camy thinks Sprinting Camy is a slavedriver.
I already know that I don't like self-editing, for whatever reason, and today I realized that giving myself MORE things to edit only makes it even harder for me to get myself to do my self-editing. I don't know why I'm like this, but it is like pulling teeth to make me do self-edits on my manuscript. It's tedious and there always seems to be so much to do and so much I have to look up because of all the notes that Sprinting Camy left for me. She's such a tyrant!
Most writing teachers will say that writing clean copy on the first go is bad. That you should lay down a crappy first draft. That you shouldn't edit as you go.
I understand what they're saying and even agree for the most part. But there seems to be this part of my brain that really really really doesn't like laying down that messy first draft. Instead of leaving myself a note to fix confusing dialogue later, I want to fix it now so I don't have to do it later. Instead of leaving myself a note to find another word so I'm not repeating myself, I want to look the word up in the thesaurus now so I won't have to do it later.
Maybe my problem is that I want immediate gratification???
Anyway, I have been following that “don’t edit as you go” writing advice for the most part for several books, because I was mostly writing on my Alphasmart, which does not allow you to edit very easily. And for most of my writing career, I had some sort of deadline, whether it was a contract with my publisher or a multi-author project I had committed to.
But this series is not under deadline, except that I want to release it soon. And so I have the freedom to write at this slow, easy pace.
And I have been finding myself enjoying the writing a lot. In fact, I don't know that I've enjoyed writing so much as I do now. Part of that is gamifying the process using 4thewords.com, but part of it is this laid-back pace.
I've been editing as I go, which hasn't happened in several books because of the Alphasmart. I'm not even doing time sprints (except for the Endurance monsters on 4thewords), so I haven't been pressuring myself to write as many words as I can in that time period. I've been doing word sprints, and I do try to get them done as quickly as possible (because I want to defeat more monsters!), but I am significantly more relaxed while writing.
My writing pace is a great deal slower than I'm used to, and paradoxically that makes me a bit disappointed. But logically thinking about it, I don't value the benefits of faster words per hour rate as much as I value the benefits of a less stressful writing session and minimal editing to do later (which makes Future Camy much, much happier).
I guess I'll see how the writing continues with this easy pace. It might be worth it because of the lower stress levels.
***
Thursdays are turning into busy days for me, because it's become our weekly grocery day. Still, I managed to get several hours of writing done, plus I got an unexpected phone call from a friend I haven't heard from in a while, and we spent a couple hours talking, which was really nice.
Time spent writing: 4 hours, 19 minutes
Total number of words: 3754 words
Average writing speed: 1018 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 27 minutes
My takeaway for today: I think I might prefer a more easy-going writing pace and cleaner copy (for minimal editing later) compared to the benefits but higher stress of higher words per hour rate.
Today I feel better--no headache, and IBS is a little uncomfortable but not too bad. I'll see how much writing I can get done today.
***
One thing I noticed today while writing is that I am more relaxed as I'm writing. When I usually do a sprint, I think I lay pressure on myself to write as fast as I can. But when I'm battling monsters, the time limit is very generous so I am writing at a more easy-going pace. I will fix a sentence that seems weird, or I'll look up a word in an online thesaurus.
Usually when I'm sprinting, and especially when I'm dictating, I'll just leave a note to myself to look this up later, fix it later. I heard something like this once on a podcast: Sprinting Camy is leaving Future Camy things to do.
The problem is that Future Camy thinks Sprinting Camy is a slavedriver.
I already know that I don't like self-editing, for whatever reason, and today I realized that giving myself MORE things to edit only makes it even harder for me to get myself to do my self-editing. I don't know why I'm like this, but it is like pulling teeth to make me do self-edits on my manuscript. It's tedious and there always seems to be so much to do and so much I have to look up because of all the notes that Sprinting Camy left for me. She's such a tyrant!
Most writing teachers will say that writing clean copy on the first go is bad. That you should lay down a crappy first draft. That you shouldn't edit as you go.
I understand what they're saying and even agree for the most part. But there seems to be this part of my brain that really really really doesn't like laying down that messy first draft. Instead of leaving myself a note to fix confusing dialogue later, I want to fix it now so I don't have to do it later. Instead of leaving myself a note to find another word so I'm not repeating myself, I want to look the word up in the thesaurus now so I won't have to do it later.
Maybe my problem is that I want immediate gratification???
Anyway, I have been following that “don’t edit as you go” writing advice for the most part for several books, because I was mostly writing on my Alphasmart, which does not allow you to edit very easily. And for most of my writing career, I had some sort of deadline, whether it was a contract with my publisher or a multi-author project I had committed to.
But this series is not under deadline, except that I want to release it soon. And so I have the freedom to write at this slow, easy pace.
And I have been finding myself enjoying the writing a lot. In fact, I don't know that I've enjoyed writing so much as I do now. Part of that is gamifying the process using 4thewords.com, but part of it is this laid-back pace.
I've been editing as I go, which hasn't happened in several books because of the Alphasmart. I'm not even doing time sprints (except for the Endurance monsters on 4thewords), so I haven't been pressuring myself to write as many words as I can in that time period. I've been doing word sprints, and I do try to get them done as quickly as possible (because I want to defeat more monsters!), but I am significantly more relaxed while writing.
My writing pace is a great deal slower than I'm used to, and paradoxically that makes me a bit disappointed. But logically thinking about it, I don't value the benefits of faster words per hour rate as much as I value the benefits of a less stressful writing session and minimal editing to do later (which makes Future Camy much, much happier).
I guess I'll see how the writing continues with this easy pace. It might be worth it because of the lower stress levels.
***
Thursdays are turning into busy days for me, because it's become our weekly grocery day. Still, I managed to get several hours of writing done, plus I got an unexpected phone call from a friend I haven't heard from in a while, and we spent a couple hours talking, which was really nice.
Time spent writing: 4 hours, 19 minutes
Total number of words: 3754 words
Average writing speed: 1018 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 27 minutes
My takeaway for today: I think I might prefer a more easy-going writing pace and cleaner copy (for minimal editing later) compared to the benefits but higher stress of higher words per hour rate.
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