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What do you do when you've written something and don't quite like how it turned out? (literature.cafe)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/writing_lounge@literature.cafe
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One piece of advice I've seen is to write constantly. Another piece of advice I've seen is to just get it all out on the page and not worry about how it turns out, to fix it in the editing stage.

Except, I can't help but go back and overthink it. If I write a section or piece, I'm constantly revising as I go along, reworking a sentence or scene or even the word choice as I write. Most recently, I had put myself to a challenge to write 500 words a day (I've already failed). I wrote a scene for a story I'd like to work on, but then next day I looked it over and didn't like it. So I deleted it, and then thought some about what to do instead, and then didn't write anything more than that.

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[–] 1 point 3 months ago

It helps that my books tend to be very modular (100 mini-tales united by a common theme). My editing process works like this:

  • Proofread the tale on my reMarkable 2 at least one day after writing it.
  • Proofread the complete, assembled manuscript in PDF version on my reMarkable.
  • After integrating alpha reader feedback (that's what I am currently working on), proofread it again in EPUB format - this time on my Kindle app on my small-screen e-ink reader (I used to do it on a Kindle, but I sold it).
  • And then I send it to beta readers and incorporate their feedback.

This way, I try to make sure that my books are as polished as possible without obsessively redoing everything all the time.

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