For me, as a pantser, there is no set in stone, I'll want to make sure everything aligns as perfectly as possible and if it means revising even a word in a prior chapter, no matter how far back they are, I'll do it.
I do the same thing! If I think of a better way to even improve a paragraph, I'll got back and do it, no matter how old the chapter is.
Yeah, it's one of those... you'll go back to check something to make sure what you've got is right and whether it is or not you'll notice a sentence that seems a little awkward, or could be refined. Can't stop myself.
I didn't mean I bar myself from revisions after a certain point (although that's not necessarily a bad idea) I just meant by the time a chapter is of a certain age, I've attacked it enough times to have become satisfied with it.
If I'm on Chapter 58 of a novel and I suddenly have an urge to go back and completely rework Chapters 6 through 13, I'm probably just gonna end up rewriting the whole dang thing. I know myself well enough by now...
My editing is split into rounds. My rough draft is just to get the story out. I don't bother editing it until the entire story is done. I might make a note of something I want to change, but nothing gets changed in the draft until I have it complete.
Second drat I make the changes I want to make and keep an eye out for grammatical erros.
Third draft I make sure everything still makes sense and comb through for grammatical errors.
After this I'll usually send of to my beta reader if she isn't busy.
Fourth draft I review the beta reader notes and decide which parts I agree with and make those changes and do my most intensive typos/grammar edit.
It's not often I go past a fourth draft.
It's why post The Love of a Werewolf was a whole new experience for me. I posted as I wrote since my nicely edited and finished draft was lost when my old laptop broke on me. I knew where the story was going at least so I did my best in recreating but I know there are a lot of mistakes in terms of grammar and typos that would have usually been caught in one of newer drafts.
Yeah, after I do all my steps my beta readers hit me with more. the one that sends me into terror mode is the one who writes back "you're better than this." sigh
I think the fact that we are both theatrically trained makes a big difference in how we approach things. We know that our words are not sacrosanct and therefore keep trying to make them so in addition to making them clear enough that an actor or director will not want to change them even if they use their "motivation" for an excuse.
Being theatrically trained kinda screws you up a little.
Agreed! I can't count the number of times I've "stalled" because I could describe a room and the fictious "design team" in my head might design it a completely different way! haha
I usually work on chapter revisions in the second and third drafts. After writing the entire story out, as a rough first draft, I go back through and edit for spelling and grammar mistakes.
Second draft is when I find beta readers to help out. Some will focus more on grammar mistakes I didn't catch while others will focus more on plot issues, structure, and character development.
Third draft is my final one usually, where I amend mistakes the beta readers pointed out and correct anything else I feel needs it.
oh dear, I'm having flashbacks... design team from h*** with a "great deal on cheap fabric" Probably the set for Sleuth.
I have to edit a lot--I think I've gotten better at this, but my writing is just kinda meh until I've gone through it a couple of times. Even still, I'll sometimes make passes of what I've already published and see very minor grammer and spelling mistakes and it's like damn it's vs its gets me so many times.
But then again, my first drafts are just spitting on the page. I approach it the same way I do art, where I take my biggest brush possible to lay in shapes and colors, and then refine with smaller and smaller brushes as I see the direction everything is heading. The final brush you use is the tiniest brush--we call it the money brush back in school--and people think you paint with that brush 100% of the time but nah--that sparkle is only done in the last 30 minutes. I got the same deal with writing.
Anyway long story short I spend most of my time rewriting. My story is done...was done...now I'm putting in a new ending and oh man it's so, so, so much better. Does mean I have to spend at least an hour a day making these adjustments as I take a 3-book story and condense it to a 1-book story.
I look at my writing like Michelangelo looked at sculpture and that inside every block of marble was a statue and he had to chip away until it was revealed.
Every word spewing rough draft I do is a like that block of marble and I have to chip away at it to get the story out. No matter how wonderful that first vomit of words is, it will always need a cleanup on aisle 5.
It's an apt analogy. I can't start any art project until I have a picture in my head of what it's supposed to look like. I still struggle on occassion making my vision become reality.
The two best pieces of advice I've ever gotten from established authors/teachers was:
Never think you don't need revisions.
Never think the first draft is perfect. And if that's what you aspire to you will be sorely disappointed when you've finished and realized you just had a brilliant idea that could elevate the story tenfold by big changes but you've already sent it out into the world and can't get it back. And he meant that for both pantsers and plotters.
I have heard that one method to be keener on spotting whatever mistakes you are making (especially for processors without spell check feature) is to periodically change the font. Our eyes get too used to a font after a period of time, and changing it will refresh it. It is recommended to use an easy-to-read font like the despised comic sans, it is actually one of the less-tiring font to read.
But of course I am not doing that 