Blurred Line

Most places you go these days (well, in the writing community - I suspect that the rest of the world doesn't care), there seems to be a general consensus that writing and editing at the same time is counterproductive. Instead, the preferred aesthetic is that a writer writes their little heart out and produces a large number of words without regards to quality and then - and only then - sets about refining it and turning it into something readable. Whenever I've mentioned that I'm a very slow, meticulous writer, because I tend to edit on the fly, the general reaction seems to be: why? Why would you do such a thing?

Give or take a few tweaks, both "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Between Eternities" were first drafts. There were no dramatic rewrites. At their most intense, my edits consisted of adding an extra paragraph to the latter story and of cutting one out from the former. Obviously, this has a lot to do with my writing style and, personally, I enjoy it. It's a nice thing to know that, after you've finally written "The End", that there's only going to be a few touch-ups here and there to work on.

That said, I can see some of the superiorities of the alternate approach as well - I tend to get discouraged when I have such a low wordcount to show for x number of hours or days of writing. What I'm really curious about, though, is why most people seem to think that the "write, then edit" approach is better. I'm not saying that it isn't - I only know what works best for me.

Without regard to your own personal preference of either technique, do you think, objectively, that one of them is better? Furthermore, am I dreaming this general preference, or does it actually exist?


Profile Writer. Student. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Movie Reviews cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Barnes&Noble.com Booksamillion.com Read it free in PDF Format Blog Exchange Experiment Results Quality Blogs Making Light The Presurfer Scalzi's Whatever Scalzi's By The Way POD-dy Mouth William Gibson Ali's QuixotiQ Writings Dave's Blogography White Screen of Despair Quantum Miss Snark Jack Slyde All Kinds of Writing Aggressive Fiction Architect by Day, Writer by Night Stalkers Not Allowed The Y Logs Totally Unauthorized Bookslut Benjamin Solah Ramblings from the Desert SF Signal Writer Unboxed the0phrastus Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 Et Cetera Feeds Atom Feed	Friday, March 17, 2006 - Editing on the Fly Most places you go these days (well, in the writing community - I suspect that the rest of the world doesn't care), there seems to be a general consensus that writing and editing at the same time is counterproductive. Instead, the preferred aesthetic is that a writer writes their little heart out and produces a large number of words without regards to quality and then - and only then - sets about refining it and turning it into something readable. Whenever I've mentioned that I'm a very slow, meticulous writer, because I tend to edit on the fly, the general reaction seems to be: why? Why would you do such a thing? Give or take a few tweaks, both "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Between Eternities" were first drafts. There were no dramatic rewrites. At their most intense, my edits consisted of adding an extra paragraph to the latter story and of cutting one out from the former. Obviously, this has a lot to do with my writing style and, personally, I enjoy it. It's a nice thing to know that, after you've finally written "The End", that there's only going to be a few touch-ups here and there to work on. That said, I can see some of the superiorities of the alternate approach as well - I tend to get discouraged when I have such a low wordcount to show for x number of hours or days of writing. What I'm really curious about, though, is why most people seem to think that the "write, then edit" approach is better. I'm not saying that it isn't - I only know what works best for me. Without regard to your own personal preference of either technique, do you think, objectively, that one of them is better? Furthermore, am I dreaming this general preference, or does it actually exist? Cavan blogged at 5:53 PM \| 3 comments	Progress Mass Romantic Currently: 12k Estimated Total: 30k Cavan Radio Playlist Reading The Beggar's Opera - John Gay "Marriage A-la Mode" - William Hogarth Poetry and Essays - Samuel Johnson Listening Sloan - Action Pact Charlotte Martin - On Your Shore The 88 - Over and Over Watching Swimming Pool: B- City of God: A- Read My Reviews Wishlist Empire of the Senseless - Kathy Acker Brendan Benson - The Alternative To Love Internal Links Under Construction Link Link