Why You Should Not Judge or Edit Your Book While You Are Writing It!
I once had a student in one of my book-writing workshops who was having a terrible time writing her book because she had worked for the post office and they made their employees edit their writing line by line as they were writing office communications, so it was very slow going. This way of thinking carried over into the way she was trying to write her book and slowed her down considerably.
The reason editing slows you down aside from the obvious-that it’s more time consuming is the fact that we actually use different sides of our brain for editing than we do for writing, so you cannot possibly do both at the same time!
While judging your writing as you are writing is the fastest way to stop you from coming up with anything good because you are nixing ideas before they are even fully formed!
But the truth is that nobody expects your book to be written perfectly the first time- that’s why we have editors!
It’s more important to get it done quickly and let it flow out of you than it is to make it “perfect”. Ironically, trying to make it perfect can stop the ideas from flowing at all. And what is perfect anyway? What’s perfect today may not be perfect next week or next month. So, you just want to get it done the best you can as quickly as possible right NOW.
Let me explain. When I wrote my first book-marketing book, I thought it was perfect, so I put it out. But then, mobile marketing began to explode, so I had to go back and add something about that. And then, several months later, I updated some links and put it out again in another edition. But then, just a week later, Google Plus was released, and I had to go back and update my book AGAIN! Eventually, I had to scrap that book and write another one!
But, if I hadn’t put it out when I first finished it, I would have lost over $7,000 that I made from the book during that time. So, that’s why I say, there’s no such thing as perfect. You do the best you can at the time, and if something changes, you update it. (And if it changes too much, scrap it and write a new one!)
You have no control over changes that may come in your field that demand that you make changes your book, but two ways to reduce typos and problems with the manuscript itself are to get feedback before you put your book out and hire a good editor. That way all the major mistakes should have been corrected before publishing and if there are any additional typos or changes, or additions needed, I promise you, your buyers will let you know.
So write the best book you can by allowing yourself to write and not edit and judge as you go. Get feedback and have your book professionally edited and then stop obsessing over if it’s good enough, and publish it!