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How to Break the Self-editing Habit as You Write
Just “throw up” on paper!
I know it’s a challenge sometimes to just keep going! To just keep writing!
it’s so instinctual for us to want to edit as we go along. But you can break the habit, and you’ll be happier in the long run for it.
Editing along the way interrupts the creative flow in your mind.
It’s better to “throw up on paper” and have a lot of thoughts and ideas, from which you can edit later.
This is mostly about mindset.
You tend to labor over one page again and again, or, you feel a third of the way through that you should go back and fix/change something.
You want everything — every word, every phrase, every sentence — to be perfect.
Fuggedaboudit!
Two things you may need to overcome to break the edit-as-you-go habit –
One — rereading what you wrote yesterday before you continue writing today.
Two — the feeling that it has to be perfect, every word, every phrase, every sentence!
A good way to not edit as you go along (assuming you are writing on. a computer) is to put a cloth over…