To Edit or Not To Edit As You Write

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

It’s strange the things you notice once you’ve been writing and editing your own work. These kinds of thoughts often zip through my mind:

• Those praise music lyrics are missing punctuation. (Does that drive you crazy, too?)
• I’m writing compound sentences in my e-mails without commas. (And feeling guilty about it.)
• I can’t send this text until it’s perfect.(Half the time I’m missing something.)

My internal editor is always on. Posting on Facebook takes five extra minutes because I’m worried I have a typo, and my voice-to-text feature frustrates me because it doesn’t capitalize properly. Doesn’t it know you have to capitalize book titles?

Is your internal editor always on, too? We try to write, and bam! Our internal editor sounds the alarm. Typo. Run-on sentence. Incomplete thought. Sometimes we want our writing to be so perfect in the first draft that the first draft is never finished or we hesitate to even start. Know what I mean?

So here’s the question—should we wait to edit until the first draft is done, or should we edit as we go along? I think that every professional writer would say, “Write your first draft to get your thoughts on paper. Don’t let editing hold you back. Then go back and edit.” I’ve said that, too. But I rarely practice it.

A Combination That Works for Me

I’d like to share with you my writing process. See what you think of the steps below, and please know that my first drafts hardly ever stay the way that they pop out. But the following process (for devotional and Bible study writing) satisfies the demands of my internal editor and helps me to make progress. Each paragraph is first written from a feeling of inspiration and enough knowledge or research of my topic, and then the editing kicks in.

• Step 1: Write the first paragraph. This is usually the beginning of the story that I’m using for the lead-in. 

• Step 2: Read the first paragraph, tweak anything that’s obviously wrong, and write the second paragraph.

• Step 3: Read the first two paragraphs, tweak obvious things, and write the third paragraph. I keep reading everything I’ve written so far, tweaking small things as I go, and continue writing until that article or section is done. 

• Step 4: Read the whole thing, and see if the flow of thought travels in a straight line and each paragraph is needed and written well. At this point, I take out sentences, rearrange their order in the paragraphs, or delete whole paragraphs.

• Step 5: Read the whole thing again, adjust what’s necessary, and give a copy to my critique buddy for an objective opinion. At this point, I discover whether the first draft is a winner or if it needs a rewrite. 

Our desire for excellent writing should never hold us back from trying. We can use that drive to supply excellent work to editors, agents, magazines, and our own blogs. Writing is a balance of art and rules. We write from inspiration, crafting stories and messages that are painted on paper. For those works of art to be the most appealing, we follow the rules of the craft. So as you write, yes, editing is necessary. But it doesn’t have to hinder the beauty that will flow from your pen or computer. 

What process do you use to write and edit? Share your thoughts below, and join the conversation!

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Katy Kauffman is an award-winning author and a co-founder of Lighthouse Bible Studies, a ministry which seeks to connect people to God through His Word.

She has taught the Bible to women and teens, and has two published Bible studies for women, 2 Timothy: Winning the Victory and Faith, Courage, and Victory which won the 2016 Selah award for Bible studies. She is an editor of Refresh Bible Study Magazine and the designer of Broken but Priceless: The Magazine. She makes her home near Atlanta, Georgia.