Every now and then, Delilah S. Dawson will go on a bit of a jag, laying down a stretch of writing advice on her Twitter account. Later on, she organizes them on her website.
Yesterday, Dawson gave some great advice on editing your early drafts–why it’s important and how to go about it. There’s lots of good stuff in that thread, including a link to a very useful Chuck Wendig post on outlining. And I don’t think it’s in this thread, but yesterday she also linked to a great motivational post by Kait Nolan.
You know, it’s funny, when I write articles or other freelance assignments, I crank out early drafts, and then I revise them carefully, like Dawson suggests. However, when I write fiction, I tend to be very precious with my rough drafts–revising as I go instead of barreling through. I don’t know why, but it’s definitely something I need to fix.
As for outlining, I try to do do a lot of front-loading when I write a new story. I’d rather break it down and start over when I’m outlining than when I’m 75,000 words into a draft. In fact, that’s what I’ve been doing with my latest story–I think I’ve demolished my outline three times already. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just another way for me to be too precious.