How to Stop Editing as You Write

January 2023 AMA

Thanks for all of your great questions!

Here’s everything we’re covering in this month’s AMA:

1. Does Greek Dramatic Structure work for both literary and genre fiction? Should our approach change depending on what genre we’re writing?

2. How do you stop yourself from editing as you write? Do you recommend using a device like Freewrite?

3. How many hours did it take you to retype your manuscript as you revised?

January 2023 AMA

1. Does Greek Dramatic Structure work for both literary and genre fiction? Should our approach change depending on what genre we’re writing?

There’s another question at the heart of this ask and it’s this: what is the difference between literary and genre fiction on a craft level?

The literary fiction vs. genre fiction debate is a big, slightly controversial topic, so I’m going to save that discussion for its own post.

But in terms of Greek Dramatic Structure (GDS), the basic answer is yes, it works for both, and no, there’s no need to change your approach depending on your genre. That said, GDS works slightly better with genre fiction because genre typically has easy-to-spot person versus person conflict. The basic premise of most genre stories inherently involves a protagonists who has a concrete thing that they want to win, stop, escape, or retrieve, and an antagonist who wants to disrupt the protagonist’s progress toward that goal.

I think this question is coming up because I use a lot of literary fiction examples in my posts. I do this for three reasons. First, it’s the genre I write. I’ve had a lot of success in this genre using what I know about craft, but more importantly, I had a career-altering failure because I didn’t use things like GDS, person vs. person conflict, and concrete character goals in my first book that died on sub. Second, I noticed when I was teaching that my students who struggled the most with plot were the literary fiction writers. I believe that if you can write a plot for literary fiction, it’s even easier to write plot for genre. And third, a lot of literary writers (and I absolutely used to be one of these writers) are often resistant to using any structure or craft theory because there is a common misconception that structure and theory interfere with “the art of the thing.” I write a lot of these lessons for my past writer self, and I hope that they can help another emerging writer break out of their comfort zone and try out new craft concepts to improve their writing.

2. How do you stop yourself from editing as you write? Do you recommend using a device like Freewrite?

For me, it comes down to two things: goal setting and framing your perspective. When I’m drafting, my goal is quantity over quality. I’m trying to hit my word count, and I encourage myself to write poorly to do it. I accept less than satisfactory writing at this stage in the process because I know that my goal for a later draft will be to focus on the line-to-line writing. If you find yourself editing while you write, and it’s counterproductive to your process, here are some guiding questions to help you set goals and reframe your perspective: