When To Edit Your Novel?

Some writers like to wait until they've finished the first draft of their novel before they edit.

Some writers like to edit as they go.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to editing, there is only what works best for you.

Editing at the end.

This way of editing is great to just get your ideas down on the page and finish the book. If you are a writer who either struggles with finishing their story, or maybe you like to write fast while the words are flowing - this way of editing is great.

It's also a good idea to wait until you've finished the first draft because you don't know what scenes you are going to keep and which scenes will be thrown away. And with the scenes that stay, you may need to rework them completely. And if those were edited already, that's a whole lot of time spent when you could have been writing your book.

Editing as you go.

Editing as you go makes for a clean first draft. When you go back over your story each scene will be mostly free of grammar mistakes and the writing won't need fixing. What you will be looking at is whether or not the scenes fit with the overall storyline, and you know, all that other stuff that makes a story flow.

The problem with this type of editing is you can get stuck on a scene trying to perfect it. Nothing is perfect, nothing will be perfect. Know when to stop editing and to carry on.

Play around with each type of editing and see which one you gel with more.