Editing??? Not Me, Not Now!! by Brenda J Wood

Editing? The farthest thing from my mind. I never edit ever. While I am writing, I write. I scribble the words. I flurry them onto computer paper. I sense the urgency of my message. Editing??? Editing destroys my thinking. Editing destroys the flow of my words. Editing too soon disrupts the energy of the thought. 

There is no room for correction in the middle of a task.

Suppose while a child put the dishes away, you holler at them for putting the plate on top of a saucer or a cup where the tea set belongs? That sounds foolish, doesn’t it? No child would do that and you would disrupt their thought and then they’d be stirring things and putting things and correcting things. Instead of actually getting the dishes out of the dishwasher.

That’s what happens when you edit too soon. Your perfection life takes over the higgledy-piggledy thoughts from your grammar teacher and intercepts your brilliant thesis. You stop and dot the i's and eliminate spelling mistakes or get distracted by the dictionary. Or Siri is trying to tell you how to correct the spelling mistake, and the thought you had about that peculiar little child sitting in sand by the side of the road; the story you were telling; the life you were living inside your head is gone.

This is why I never ever edit while I write. Editing is for later when all of the heat of the word is on the page; then and then only do you go back and edit. And just so you know, once you start to edit there is no end because we are picky beyond picky and most readers won’t even notice.

Top) Image by Jeshoots-com from Pixabay

Brenda J. Wood has authored more than fifty books. She is a seasoned motivational speaker, who declares the Word of God with wisdom, humour, and common sense.