Why Writers Should Edit Every Morning

I recently learned about this from one of my mentors, and it was such a good idea I wanted to share it with you all! You may have heard of writing every day, but what about editing? There’s actually a whole host of reasons why you should not only edit every day while you write but also why you should edit in the morning BEFORE you get any writing done.

Why? At first, I thought the same thing. You write then you edit then you rewrite. That’s how the process goes. But there’s more to it than that. Read the reasons why you should edit every morning below and jumpstart your writing process!

Edit for Continuity

Sure, rough drafts aren’t perfect, but they can work in your favor. A HUGE part of rough drafts is that this is where story ideas take flight. Sometimes they fall flat, and other times they’re good ideas that need to improve with time. You can’t expect these drafts to be the same as the final draft. Even seasoned writers know this. Neil Gaiman described his rough drafts as “very similar except for all the important things.”

However, if you edit every day, you prepare yourself to write, and you keep continuity in check. You might want to change an idea, so you make a note. Or you realize you made a mistake because something you wrote earlier doesn’t add up to what you’ve been working on, so you fix it. Editing these details preserves the ideas you have, while also reminding you what big ideas you want to change later. If you keep all the details in check every day, it becomes easier when you go back to rewrite everything. By doing so, now everything is in the right place and you don’t have to stress so much about fixing your mistakes.

Edit to Aid Your Drafts Along the Way

You might read a lot about growing your writing skills and practicing techniques. The same holds true for editing! You need to learn how to edit effectively and how to use it in a way that helps your writing. When you edit every day, you gain lots of practice doing it, the same way writing every day helps your writing. And if editing is the first thing you do in the day, you prepare your brain to start examining your writing critically. When you do that, you keep your goals on track and you start solving the problems you’ve been facing.

To give your drafts a boost by editing, make sure to do the following:

1. Examine the whole section. By that I mean, the entire page, paragraph, or chapter. See where you’ve placed yourself previously, and double-check that the scene is moving in the right direction at the right pace and that the characters are doing what you want them to do. If you read all of it and everything looks good, great! If not, you’ve now pinpointed what needs fixing so you don’t have to worry about it later.

2. Check the little details. Believe it or not, keeping things like grammar and punctuation in check is a game-changer for writing. You train your eye to spot mistakes the more you do it. But besides those details, make sure all the little worldbuilding and character details you created hold up. Is there something you accidentally changed? Can something be fixed to better fit the scene? This improves your draft as a whole as you write.

Edit to Get Writing

Sometimes you sit down to write and the words won’t come. That’s understandable. We all get blocked from time to time, but we don’t have to. A good way to get ready to write and get rid of writer’s block is to edit whatever you wrote the previous day (or whenever you last wrote something). Not only do you get the chance to do work on continuity and everything else, but you also get in the perfect position to start writing.

When you edit what you just finished writing, you’re reading your writing as well. This gives you a chance to say “Hey, what if I tried this?” or “I don’t think I did that right. I’ll try again this way.” This puts you in the mood to, well, start writing and get those things rewritten to how you want them.

You won’t always get in the writing mood. There will be days when you need to force yourself to put down at least a few words. But there’s more to writing than simply writing. Editing is just as important, and it’s also important to keep from treating both as two separate processes. Edit and write at the same time to keep yourself on track. That way, when you go back to your drafts and start rewriting, you keep yourself from floundering and losing the direction you want your story to go in.

Editing and writing both take time. Don’t overwhelm yourself with goals that are too big, and don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s a learning process, so keep the negativity in check and prepare for tomorrow. Happy writing!

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