...is line editing.
You know, line editing. That thing you do where you write a paragraph or two, go back over it, tweak a word or a phrase, maybe write a little more, tweak that, then get stuck, go back through everything you've written so far and tweak that. It's the thing your Inner Editor wants you to do, and it's what NaNoWriMo trains you out of doing. (Am I going to mention NaNoWriMo in every post from now until December? I just might!) You know what I'm talking about.
Well, I'm here to tell you that not only should you NEVER do what I just described, you shouldn't line edit AT ALL until EVERYTHING else is finished. And I don't just mean finishing your first draft (although that's a start). I mean, this type of editing should not happen until you've written at least two or three (or six) drafts. It shouldn't happen until the pacing of your story has been smoothed out, the scenes are all there and in order, and you're so sick of this darn thing that if you have to look at it one more time, you'll puke.
Now can you line edit? Well, no. Puke is bad. When you get to that point, stop, take a break, and come back to it when the sight of it doesn't make you queasy. If the structure is still good, NOW you can line edit. Now you can go through and tweak like you've always wanted. And then you're done. You've done the last thing. You have a novel.
Now it's time to mail it to people and get rejected a lot!
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