For a lot of writers, acquiring a nagging desire to edit as you write, is one of the growing pains of becoming an experienced wordsmith. It’s completely normal. As you grow, you learn how to spot the difference between writing that’s great and one that’s mediocre. This developing of taste quickly overtakes your writing ability, and, before you know it, you’re comparing your first draft to Hemingway’s sixth.
Take a step back. Writing is meant to be a complex process done in a series of drafts, rewrites, and edits. As you know by now, the secret of great writing is just rewriting. You can’t expect your first draft to be print-ready. No one can be that good.
But, because you’ve already experienced how it feels like to produce great prose, you want to do it again and again. You forget about the four different drafts, the six scenes you had to cut, and that character that made absolutely no sense and had to be removed. Instead, you look at a finished product and wish all your new writing be just as good, maybe minus the hassle.
Unfortunately, that’s not how writing works.
Let your lousy writing flow! Type it all, no matter how ugly. Write here and now, with the words that come to mind, no matter how beautiful or ugly they seem.
Leave the worrying about style and structure to your future self. When it’s time, you will get the job done.
