Blasting Through Vs. Getting It Right

[RogueLurker]

I'm kind of in the middle of the two extremes.

Normally, I can't start until i get the opening line just right, then I start plugging away at writing. I revise as I go, constantly going back to reread and rework ... but I will write between 2 to 4K words in a sitting and will normally keep at it with small breaks until I've got the story down. Then the real editing begins ...

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Then the real editing begins ...

*nodding*

"Which do you like better?"

"You changed ONE word!"

"So?"

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Typically, I just write. About midway through, a revised first line/paragraph occurs to me and I rewrite it.

Then rewrite at the end.

 

[gauchecritic]

I've written one or two stories from beginning to end in one sitting, but I wasn't actually blasting through. I wrote like I usually write, fly-editing and very little work afterwords, but the ends of those stories just came up sooner than I expected.

I can't type as fast I think, or as fast as the story leads me so there's no real point to not editing as I go. I've already forgotten where I was going before I've typed the lead in so stopping to fix things hinders nothing. Add to that the fact that I can't edit my own work if your life depended on it by re-reading what I wrote months, weeks or even days before. I'm too close to it after 'the end' to be able to see where it needs fixing.

editors are invaluable to me (even though I rarely ask)

I suppose what I could do is underline where something needs re-rendering but that would take as much time as fixing it there and then. And I couldn't bear to carry on when I know something isn't quite how I want it to be.
I spend minutes on end (when I could be blasting through) just trying to think of one appropriate word so I tend to believe that if it isn't sorted out there and then I'm not going to be in that frame of mind again whenever I return to it.

Different person, different story. I'm never going to be the same person that's writing at that moment and so I'm never going to be able to capture what the story deserves by leaving til later.

 

[starrkers]

I tend to be a surger - I'll blast through a section and have the next major point in my head, but be unable to figure out how to get the characters to the beginning of that point, so stop. I have to write linearly, I can't write the next big bit and come back to the link, it doesn't work.
I type as fast as I think (when I'm used to the keyboard, which I'm not yet with thtis one) and edit typos on the fly. Any areas of rewrite are mentally highlighted and I come back to them when the story's finished.

 

[Guest]

Blaster.

Though I haven't written anything decent in awhile. Or indecent, as Ogg suggested.

I type very quickly. I'm also ADHD. If I stop to edit matters I generally lose my train of thought. So I generally plug on as time allows until I've exhausted the muse or my brain.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Blast through.

I've learned to trust myself, because 90+ percent of my text only requires minor copy editing.

 

[TE999]

I am neither a Blaster or an Oil Painter.

I am both (evidently) in unequal amounts.

I usually start with an idea and let the words roll.

Then I clean up the mess later.

Pace' to my long suffering editor.

 

[RonClarkeson]

I blast!

Another thread asking about an opening paragraph made me wonder about this: how do you write? Do you tend to blast your way through a story from start to finish and then go back and edit and revise or do you have to get it right from the start and polish each paragraph as you go along?

I tend to be a blaster. In fact, I've trained myself to ignore my opening paragraphs altogether when I start writing, knowing I'll come bck to them. But then, I often start a story having only the foggiest notion of what's going to happen in it, so it makes no sense for me to try and get it right before a first draft is finished.

--Zoot

My muse is a damn fickle thing, when I sit at the keyboard and words come I type as fast as my fingers let me. I do not even look at what I type. I then wait until the muse stops for a break and edit what I typed and that is often dificult, but the results are lots an lots of stories. My muse has been very active of late 10,000 words this month already, I wonder how many will make Lit.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

The problem with writing stories is - sometimes they take twists and turns of their own. Because of that the opening lines have to be rewritten. Happens to me a lot.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I write until I find a reason to stop, or to go back and edit. I edit until I don't mind what's there anymore, or I come up with something to continue with. I continue until I write something that requires me to go back and edit something for continuity, and then I edit until I think it works, or some up with something else to continue with.

I'm very scatterbrained

 

[Goldie Munro]

I completely blast in my head and have the whole idea worked out. Then when I start to write I have to make sure every paragraphs is right. Then I go back and edit - so totally anal!

 

[BlackShanglan]

Blast the notes and invention stage.

Push determinedly through drafting (which I dislike).

Polish through many post-drafts until finally completely satisfied.

Post or publish.

Repeat polishing at various intervals, each time having grown unsatisfied with the previous work, until death parts us at last.

 

[Guest]

Blast the notes and invention stage.

Push determinedly through drafting (which I dislike).

Polish through many post-drafts until finally completely satisfied.

Post or publish.

Repeat polishing at various intervals, each time having grown unsatisfied with the previous work, until death parts us at last.

Shang sighting!

 

[AthenasFury]

I don't blast. There are times that I just pound the keyboard because the ideas are coming so hard and fast that I want to get them down. Ordinarily I write and tweak as I go. That doesn't mean that I still don't go back to the start and do a heavy-handed edit, but I do quite a bit of tweaking things previously written as I continue.

I even have a system about it. When I have to put a piece away and later come back to it, I'll read three or four paragraphs back so that I can get back in the groove of what I was writing. As I do that, if I notice anything that needs fixing, I fix it. It's helpful in that I catch some really dumb errors that confuse transitions and new character introductions that started off awkward become smoother.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Shang sighting!

Sighting of Sweetsubsarahh's AV - surely I have the better of this exchange.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

Sighting of Sweetsubsarahh's AV - surely I have the better of this exchange.

Shanglan

(cantdog is a brilliant artist, isn't he?)

Good to see you, too.

 

[CeriseNoire]

I do both, sometimes at the same time. It's partly responsible for my loss of sanity.