On My Mind, Miscellaneous Thoughts
More from The Write Start, a 21-day writing prompt program being run by See Jane Write.
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I edit as I write. This is a useful skill if one is producing usable newspaper copy – where I started – or reproducing the substance of an interview – what I do now.
It is a less useful skill when one is writing fiction. It is exceedingly less useful when one is writing fiction and one is bad at it. This isn’t a slam. I’ve probably written 3 fiction pieces in the last 30 years. It would be odd if I wasn’t bad at it. I’ve just started trotting crossrails with my fiction. I don’t expect to jump a grand prix novel the first time the bell rings.
My right brain is easily intimidated by my strident, vocal left brain. OTOH, my left brain wants to hit this fiction thing out of the park. This will require creativity and non-linear thinking.
Apollo and Dionysus have reached a compromise. I can write without criticism on the understanding that the words remain with me. No one gets to read it. Not my beta reader. Not my writing partner. No one. It’s the only way I can get my inner editor to take a break.
We’ll see where this leads.
Last week’s TWS [Schadenfreude Saturday, My Pain Is Your Amusement]
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
I find writing then editing to be more productive. It does require several/many readings but the result is much richer. First thoughts and phrasing are captured.. As you said, no one sees this version so I am less likely to filter my writing. Second round and later ones are for filtering.
You write well. Anyone saying otherwise is misguided.
I always edit as I write, even those rare occasions when I try fiction. Which is really not my forte. The occasional poem or haiku, but that’s about it. I think the edit as I’m writing thing is genetic.
It’s a theory. We’ll see what happens when the plan comes into contact with reality.