In this video, we talk about the importance of finding a writing process that works for you. We then take a look at my writing process and how I view drafting and revision.
I hope it gives you some ideas to try to improve your own process and build the momentum to see your draft through to completion!
Good luck!
Hello, Jane Cleland here. And the question is, “Each day when I sit down to write, I look back several chapters and I find that I need to revise them, so that I don’t get as much new writing done as I wish I could. Is that okay?”
Every writer has to find their own process.
There’s no question about it. There is not one size fits all. And if that’s what’s working for you, I would say keep doing it. But having said that, I would also encourage you to experiment with other approaches because it might be that a little perfectionism is getting you there.
That you really are leery about moving on until what you’ve already written is perfect, and we don’t wanna get stuck in that way.
I’ll tell you what I do, maybe it’ll help. I lay down plot, that’s my phrasing for it. I know what I want to write, and I have the incidents that are going to tell that section of the story. Some people refer to this as scenes. I know what the next chapter is going to contain.
Let us say, I just want to get it down and it’ll be a rough draft. I’ll have dialogue. I’m writing as if I think it’s terrific. It’s only when I go back and reread it that it’s like, “Oh! That needs revision on a major scale.” But that’s okay.
I lay down as much plot as I can and then I go back and I revise it as the next step. It’s gonna have several more steps of revision, but the reason that works for me is I find it harder to get new writing down than revision. I prefer revision. So for me to lay down plot, that is great news. That means I now have something to revise, and that’s the process I’ve evolved over the years and it works well for me.
Maybe it will for you too. But if not, that’s okay. You have a process that’s working. I do think it’s worth experimenting though, as we always evolve, try new things, try to refine and hone and improve our prospects of writing as efficiently and as best we can. I know you can do it.
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