Managing Your Inner Editor

Greetings, Reader! Welcome to the official Tome Ravens blog, where we cover everything from writing and editing tips to bookish news and reviews! Check back every other Saturday afternoon for a new post, and leave a comment if you would like to see us cover a specific topic here on the blog, and make sure to subscribe so you can be notified whenever we post new content.

You’re almost the furthest you’ve ever gotten in your draft. You’re near the end of the first Act, approaching the saggy middle that you’ve been dreading. You decide to go back and re-read the beginning for ideas and realize how much you hate the first sentence. You rewrite it. You continue reading and - oh no - you realize the main character’s hair color changed somewhere along the way. Better fix that now too. Now you’ve rewritten the first chapter about five times, and spent the last two weeks not even thinking about moving forward.

Is it because you actually need to keep re-working the same parts over and over? Or are you afraid of the unknown? Are you letting your Inner Editor take the reins and feed into your doubts?

Chances are, you might need to work out those parts that you feel the need to rewrite, but that can probably wait until you finish the draft. Once you hit the finish line, you’ll have an idea of the complete story and can go back and start from the beginning. But in order to finish - I’m (not) sorry to say this - you need to stop re-writing that first chapter. Tell your Inner Editor to STFU. They’ll have their time. Right now, it’s shitty first draft time. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird taught me the gift of shitty first drafts.

“All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.”

“So I’d start writing without reigning myself in. It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move. And the writing would be terrible.”

-Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

This draft is all about telling the story to yourself first. Nobody else has to read it. This draft is for you.

On the other hand, some people can edit while they draft! From my experience and reading other blogs, it doesn’t seem very common. Even though I outline and plot as much as I can, so much changes throughout my draft that there’s no point in going back to polish previous sections when I might end up deleting or overhauling them once I hit the end and realize a certain character isn’t working anymore, or a whole plot point shifted and isn’t leading to the place I thought it would. It’s so easy to get married to your ideas or think you need one thing to make the rest work, but usually my best and strongest ideas come from letting go. Usually, I get stuck and afraid to move forward because I’m being stubborn and think that I need to keep a character or a plot thread that I fell in love with or thought was so clever, but it’s no longer serving my story in the same way, or it just doesn’t make sense anymore.

As much as I can hate on the Inner Editor, it can actually be a good thing during the Drafting Stage, but not in the way we might realize. One thing the Inner Editor (IE) can be good for is decision making. Your IE can help you step away from your Writer counterpart, and help you think about what is truly serving your story. For example, many writers fall prey to planning sequels before the first book is finished. I’m not saying you can’t write notes down for potential sequels, but maybe don’t write a fully fleshed outline for Book Two until you’ve finished Book One - especially if you keep getting stuck. You want your first book to stand on its own, and every character and plot point to make sense for the first book.

Let’s say, you know a character is going to play an important role in your second book, so you decide to introduce them in Book One. Maybe you notice that the scene they’re in isn’t particularly interesting, but you think you have to include it because they’re going to be important in the next book. Don’t do yourself this disservice. If forcing this character or an idea into your first book just in the hopes that someone will remember it for later, I’m telling you, you do not need it. Cut it. Highlight and delete it. Or copy and paste it into an Outtake folder for later.

You can introduce characters in the second book if having them in only one scene in the first book doesn’t add anything to your story except a longer word count. Anything you can foreshadow or set up in Book One for a potential series should still make sense for your first book on its own, without drawing it out unnecessarily. You want everything in your book to matter. If you can ensure that, then you’ll have the strongest possible version of your book. Your IE can potentially help you see these things as you’re drafting, and keep you from spending too much time adding extra words you might end up cutting later during the Editing process.

Using your Inner Editor is all about balancing and navigating what might be holding you up. Sometimes we just need to be honest with ourselves - whether that means hitting the mute button on our Inner Editor, or letting them say their piece. I know that you’ll be able to tell the difference, even if you need to step away from the screen and take a walk first! Happy writing!~

Jasmine

If you haven’t subscribed already, what are you waiting for? Get notified as soon as we post new content, and never miss out on bookish news and expert writing advice! You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, too!

Are you a writer looking to take the next step with your manuscript? We offer Beta Reading and Editing services at unbeatable rates on our website! So whether you’re looking to submit your work to agents or self-publish, we can help take your manuscript to the next level. For more information on our services and our rates, click here!

Caw Caw for now!

The Tome Ravens