Editing your first draft before you finished it? Pros and cons?

For me, editing while still writing that first draft leads to frustration, and then feeling blocked entirely. It's why I have yet to complete Nano, because I just can't help myself from rereading what I've written, followed by cringing.

Personally, I would draw a distinction between editing and editing.

Editing, as in fine-tuning the words and sentences that make up your work to ensure every one is right - that I can do as I go along. Some distance from the work is helpful, though, so I choose not to.

Editing, as in looking at the overall narrative flow of the story, making plots hang together and have all the elements required introduced at the right time, giving characters the right level of progression, managing the pacing to fit the point in the narrative arc... this stuff I can't do until it's all finished. The ending might require you rewrite the start, which requires you rewrite the middle, which requires you rewrite the ending... if you do it once you have a view of the whole then you might be able to avoid this.

onesecondglance said:

Editing, as in looking at the overall narrative flow of the story, making plots hang together and have all the elements required introduced at the right time, giving characters the right level of progression, managing the pacing to fit the point in the narrative arc... this stuff I can't do until it's all finished. The ending might require you rewrite the start, which requires you rewrite the middle, which requires you rewrite the ending... if you do it once you have a view of the whole then you might be able to avoid this.

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That sounds entirely logical...and yet it doesn't work that way for me at all. I have to get it right as I go, sort of like building a house correctly from the foundation up. If you do that, you won't be ripping out the basement while trying to keep the roof from caving in because you didn't erect the proper supports.

That's not to say there won't be some minor adjustments to be made when all's said and done, but for the most part, the story stands as written.

However, this is not a method I would recommend for anyone who isn't wired to do it this way. And there's nothing wrong with other methods. In the end, all that matters is that you have a coherent, compelling story. Doesn't matter how it was put together.

BethS said:

In the end, all that matters is that you have a coherent, compelling story. Doesn't matter how it was put together.

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Agreed on every part!

I can't help myself. I edit while I write, when I finish parts, all the time. The issue I see is whether or not it stops your flow/progress on the work. If not, it's not an issue to me.

You will still likely need major edits after the work is done. No easy way to review the novel as a whole until it's finished and you usually have some plot holes to fill in or change.

Jeff