My Least Favourite Thing About Writing

Spoiler alert: it’s the editing. While I enjoy writing (most of the time), even when it gets difficult (often), I do have a least favourite part of the process of creating a fictional story. My favourite part is either the planning or writing itself, and as soon as I get to the stage in a piece where I need to look over it to figure out where I’ve gone wrong and make structural or grammatical changes, I want to run away. I dread having to face what I’ve written and pick it apart with a fine-tooth comb, especially because it’s often the thing that puts me off continuing to write a project at all.

What I Don’t Like About Editing

Editing can be fun! There’s nothing like spotting a mistake or a clunky sentence and having the chance to improve it. However, editing is probably the most time-consuming part of writing because it requires complete focus. Your eyes and mind need to be sharp when you edit, and I find that I’m rarely ever in the state of mind where I want to sink large amounts of time into tearing apart the things I’ve written. Most of the time, I don’t want to actively criticise myself, thank you very much.

The main reason I don’t like editing is that it also has the power to make me doubt my writing ability. I can’t help but read over some of the word choices I’ve made, paragraphs I’ve written, and scenes I’ve devised, and think ‘What on earth was I doing?’ Knowing that I can so often feel this way makes me reluctant to go backwards while I’m writing something even to read over it. As soon as the doubt creeps in, the motivation goes with it, and it’s one of the reasons I struggle to finish the things I write.

So, regardless of how much I don’t like editing, it’s in my best interest to learn how to tolerate it if I ever want to finish a piece of writing, and here’s why I should change my mindset and do exactly that.

Why I Should Like Editing

The most important thing I need to do is accept that my writing will never be perfect, nor will it be any good at all if I don’t embrace editing. Editing is crucial. It does not matter if other people have first drafts that come out perfect. That just doesn’t work for everyone. I’m not a bad writer because of it. I would be a bad writer if I ignored the fact that my writing could benefit from being improved. I should enjoy editing because it’s a lifeline.

Editing is a very, very good thing. It’s a promise that improvements can always be made. While you may like your first attempt at something, a second attempt can be more informed, concise, and just better. A simple glance over a sentence can give you an idea of how to improve it that you missed in the first place. If I write something terribly the first time, nothing is stopping me from trying again as many times as I want to and that should be a very motivating thought. Progress and editing go hand in hand. If you don’t edit, you’ll be stuck in the same place.

Editing is not just ‘fixing’ bad writing. Nothing is broken, it’s just maybe not as good as it could be. Editing gives you a chance to enhance what you’ve already written, not just to tear it apart or reflect on how bad you are at writing things on your first go. It’s also a skill, so maybe what I need is to get better at editing and learn to love it as much as I love writing in the first place. That’s where the list I compiled to remind myself of things to look out for while editing will come in handy. The better I get at identifying the moments when my writing gets a little shaky, the less intense my editing will need to be.

Ultimately, editing can be enjoyable and rather motivating if you let it be, but I know I’ll still have moments when I dislike it. Until I can find a way to stop finding anything to do rather than edit, I’ll drag myself through reading my fiction with as little cringing as I possibly can because I know it’s for the best.

What’s your least favourite thing about writing?