It was revolutionary and resulted in the publishing of three books
When it comes to writing advice, one size does not fit all. Authors are unique creatures, and as such, they struggle with uniquely different issues and challenges. However, if you remain open, one day a piece of writing advice will come along that will strike you between the eyes — changing you forever.
That’s exactly what happened to me many years ago. A single piece of writing advice opened my eyes, set me on a new course in my writing process, and thrust me forward—resulting in the publication of three books (with more to come).
So, what was that life-changing advice?
Write now. Edit later.
Why was this so revolutionary for me? Because I was a perfectionist writer. I would write the opening paragraph to a book, then spend days, weeks, or months, perfecting that paragraph: writing, editing, rewriting, editing, deleting it all, writing, editing, rewriting, editing . . . well, you get the point. Needless to say, at the end of the year, if I was lucky, I might have the first page of my book done, but more often than not, by the end of a year I lost interest in the story and moved on to something else.
And if I somehow managed to not lose interest, but plugged away writing the story, I’d discover that eventually the plot would progress in such a way that it required me to go back and rework the opening paragraph all over again, meaning all the labor that went into perfecting that paragraph was for naught.
So, upon receiving that crucial writing advice, I followed it—and it worked. I wrote with reckless abandon, only editing once I got all of my story down on paper (or on screen). Then, at the end of the year, instead of only one well-polished page or chapter of a book, I now had a whole book written—albeit unpolished and requiring a lot of editing. (But remember, you can mold a lump of clay only if you have a lump of clay.)
Because I’m a perfectionist, no matter how many times I read my manuscript, I always, always, always find something to fix, adjust, or reword. Even after the manuscript has gone through several professional edits and has been published, I still beat myself up over how I could make this sentence or that sentence better.
Maybe I’ll be back one day with another piece of writing advice to help you with the difficult process of learning when you’ve edited enough—and how to know when it’s time to release your manuscript into the world. As soon as I perfect that, I’ll let you know.
J.L. Pattison is an award-winning speculative fiction author whose books have earned him favorable comparisons to Rod Serling, M. Night Shyamalan, and Ray Bradbury. He also writes for such publications as Liberation Day, Predict, The Startup, and The Writer’s Sanctuary. His articles have also been featured at Mere Liberty and on Wretched TV.
