I tend to be in the minority here, because any writing I do, I've tended to think about long and hard before I sit down to put it to paper, and considering my grammar and spelling tend to be very solid, any revision I might do only comes in bits and pieces as I write and work from my extensive plot outlines and spreadsheets.

 

As was previously stated, it always a bad idea to halt the flow of writing to worry about a particular sentence and how it goes... its a surefire way to end up scrapping the whole paragraph, as was said. I've also always found writing to be a creative pursuit, whereas editing is logical, and in some situations, those two can be in direct opposition of one another and you may end up trying to do both and not doing particularly well at either.

Think of it like a dancer who - in the middle of dancing - stops to try several different steps, wanting to go back and second-guess what they'd just done, all the while the music continuing to play in the background. That's the flow. And I've found in my experience, that the "song" of inspiration, only goes on for so long before its done for the time being. If you spend the whole time worrying about one thing in particular, and never just lose yourself in the inspiration and see what becomes of the meld of inspiration and willingness, how do you ever expect to accomplish the goal?

Its better to have too much and room to trim and alter things, than to have too little when the inspiration goes.

Rambling, but yeah... Write first. Worry about everything else once you aren't so inspired to create, its not like the word document will disappear the second you stop writing for the day.

 

Actually, I agree with Sesc. I used to be the first kind of writer, and all my work was shitty, and completely unfixable. Now I know what I'm going to write before I put it to paper - if not the exact working, something very close.

 

It varies for me.
Essays and non-fictional stuff will generally be churned out a page at a time, then checked before going to the next. It works pretty well; I net an A on most writing assignments. It does take up a good bit of time, though. A 3 page essay on history can take me 3 hours or so, while others might complete that kind of length in an hour or less. If I really want to guarantee a good grade I'll follow the following steps:
1. Plan
2. Think about plan
3. Research
4. Look at plan. Revise it.
5. Start writing.
6. Finish. Wait a day or so.
7. Revise.
8. Give to a friend to revise.
9. Annotated and corrected draft printed by my side, I do the final draft.

But I'm a slow writer already so I do the above for really major assignments I can't afford to mess up. My Extended Essay for IB, basically a research paper that counts for a large portion of my grade, is being done this way. I plan and then write and then revise.

For creative stuff I tend to revise as I write. Because I care so much about word choice and things like that I tend to write a sentence at a time. For the only decently long story I've written in a while I would sit down and write, revising, deleting, and correcting myself as I went.
My poetry is done differently. I'll usually be doing something and inspiration will strike in the form of a cool line/lines I like. I'll write those, then try and find something that speaks to me. I tend to correct myself as I write for poems. I'll go back, rework, rework it some more...

Wow I ramble.

 

I completely agree with Sesc. Inspiration leaves me a thousand plot-bunnies that I like for one reason or another. Concentrating on a single idea for a long time and making it work before writing is the best way to go about it, otherwise you are left at the mercy of your inspiration. (Thus only writing when you feel like it.) I can't really think out all the details like Silens because that takes away a lot of the fun of writing for me.

I sometimes write when I don't feel like it, and that shifts to me feeling like it.

I don't like the Lego analogy much, but I see what you were trying to say. Maybe I am in the minority, but I really don't get hung up on sentences and words that often. At least not to the point where I rage and delete entire sections. I may delete the sentence and go from there.

It seems some people have this need to get the structure out, thus writing without editing, and others take a little more time while writing to make that first draft not so rough. Another way of putting it would be some are worried about getting the meat and bones down, while others take time to craft the muscles and skin as well as the meat and bones.

I don't think my own analogy is any better. >.>

 

Wow, you really don't. I seem to have misunderstood your analogy. I did not think you meant literally.

That is, for lack of better word, very broken to me. No offense, but I really can't see trying to write a scene like that. I'm seriously fascinated by that technique, not sure why. I see you do dialogue like that, with the words implying emotion, but how do you put together a fight scene? How do you handle exposition?

 

I think I revise while writing and edit afterwards. I'm never really aware when I write, I go into this sort of trance; if I can't think of the right word or if I've misspelt one, though, moving on from it isn't possible. It ends my concentration, and I mostly edit what I've gotten--- doesn't work very well, I suppose.

Thus, I can see the benefits of the Lego scheme. It seems like a puzzle, like it easily allows an author to take apart the words and see how they work in context. This might work better for me, as I quite often describe my prose as feeling mathematical.

 

The best way to describe my method of writing is a loop system that extends itself each cycle.

Generally speaking I'll read through and edit everything I've written so far before starting a new sentence/paragraph. Then I'll do that again for the next paragraph, only now including the new paragraph. And so on.

The end result is that my chapters often deteriorate in quality towards the end, as there have been fewer revisions lol.

 

To me, flow is the most important part of the writing after content. I write from A to B, constantly re-reading everything I've written up to that point, the sentences I'm on, the paragraph, or even just the whole thing from the beginning until I'm satisfied that it all fits together well, that the word choices don't sound awkward and the composition is smooth.

Needless to say, it takes a long time. But I always leave room for a read-through when I've long and forgotten how exactly I wrote it: pedantic, yes, but reading the story again as a fresh reader is the best way to judge, for me at least, how good the story is.

I actually do this re-reading with pretty much everything I write, including texts and posts.

 

Writing is art, not science; no one does it exactly the same way as another, and there is no sure-fire formula (though there is for getting your work turned into a movie, but I digress).

I write a few lines at a time, then, as inspiration continues to flow, I might revise the last sentence or two just to make the new idea fit. I tend to write in bursts, sometimes days-long, usually only a few minutes. But as the ideas themselves develop and grow, some words must be adjusted.

Also, Sesc, I fucking love Lego. Killer analogy.

 

Blaise stares at Tinn.

 

And just to make sure you remember, his name isn't just 'something Cuffe'. It's Barnabus, Sesc. His name is Barnabus Cuffe.

And Voldemort offers him waffles.

 

Uh.... thats not SOC, thats just your mindless first draft writing.

think Catcher in teh Rye for a good example of this literary technique...

Uh... ther is a formula for science -- 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration (thomas edison).

cant see why that won't apply to art as well, or any other human endevour.

 

Like spelling? Edison was a tinkerer, not a scientist. He was no Tesla.

 

Usually when I am working on scripts (TV and film world here), I go ahead and bang out an act and then go back and do revisions at a later date. Well... as long as I don't see any glaring mistakes on the initial read-through after I am done.

Typically, I already know what I want to put down well before I start writing.