How often do you edit your chapters?

[Ranty-cat]

I trust I have altered the parts of my most recent novel more than fifty times at this point. Each time I alter, it seems like it's okay at this point. Then, at that point, the following day when I read them, they feel like trash. Likewise, everytime I re-read, I find linguistic and spelling blunders.

I don't think I will alter any longer. I'm tired of editing them.

[ninjashira]

When I'm writing, I never edit chapters as I'm writing them. I will write out my entire first draft of my story before going back and making any edits, so I know my edits are serving the greater purpose of the overall story. If I'm going through my first draft and I realize I need to go back and change something earlier in the story, I don't go back and change it, I make a note to myself right in the document as I'm typing, like (make sure Spark finds the ring before meeting Tanahi) or (add foreshadowing to this event in chapter two). Then after I finish my first draft, I'll go back and make any edits I caught for myself.

After I've gotten the story as good as I can on my own, I'll invite some friends to read it and give me their thoughts. I'll share my Google Doc and they'll make notes right in the document just like I do.

With their input, I'll go back and do one last pass of editing, and then my story is usually done. I may leave it alone for a few weeks and reread it one more time with a fresh mind to make sure there aren't any glaring issues I just got too familiar with to notice, and then that's it!

Once I publish something online, I never go back and change it. In my mind, if I've put it online, that's it, and I'm stuck with what I put out into the world.

[Caro]

To be completely honest, I hardly edit at all even for my long-form comic.

The main chunk of editing I end up doing is usually when my publisher’s editor takes a pass and asks me to fix any spelling errors. Its usually the word weird. I always spell it wierd......

[LittleFoodie]

When writing a novel, editing is part of the process. Go back and edit as often as you like. Most authors do too. I usually go back and edit a chapter 5-6 times when I think of a better word or add a scene to fix a hole in the storyline.

[rajillustration]

I feel like I edit so often because I don't have a proofreader for this particular project. I should just bother my bro with a technical lit degree to check my it's and my its but I got him on a different project so...it is what it is. I do a lot of it's instead of its and it's my bane.

[NatAberdeen]

I edit way too often. Sometimes I catch spelling or grammar mistakes, sometimes I think of a sentence or word I'd like to replace, but more often than not, I tend to think of completely new ways to refine and write a part of a chapter. I'm always really unsure of myself when I do do that, but once I finish, I like it even more! That's how I turned my first chapter from a collection of introductions and exposition into something that readers could find interesting. The best thing about Tapas is that you can edit and change as much as you want. I always like to let my (very few) followers know whenever I make really drastic changes though. Still, it's your story and you're in charge of what you want

[Ranty-cat]

Precisely. Same here as I discover this totally relatable. Subsequently, I concur sincere.

[rambog]

Before starting writing, I always left this well thought in my mind. While writing, it just happens. I've never edited a chapter and I don't even read them more than 1 time, because I trust the work I've done.

[Lirina]

I do about four to five rounds of editing before I publish a chapter. After publication, I generally leave them as they are except for minor edits such as spelling mistakes or slight rephrasing, as and when I see something that needs fixing

[MeltingCORE]

I seem to edit quite a bit before publication! Mainly structural - grammar, wording, repeated descriptive language, etc. I check sometimes after publication because I like to reread my work. I've had my plot mapped out in three segments since I began and only rarely do I actually shift things nowadays.

[Ranty-cat]

I do have my story plots delineated, yet not the subtleties, just the principle thoughts of the plot. This is the reason I battle and invest such a lot of energy on composing the depiction.

[BAFr]

It's a good idea to have friends/anyone else read your story for the mistakes to appear. From your viewpoint, everything can look natural and exactly the way you want it because when you're writing, you're seeing the imagination happening in your mind, so you don't see the mistakes as clearly. But another thing is, your story is yours! The people reading can't catch onto mistakes as much as you might think. Yes, it's good for you to re-edit grammar, pronunciation, etc.; that's something you want your friends to tell you about, but if it affects your story in any way the way you want it DON'T RE-EDIT. The story is yours, coming from your own imagination, and it does need to have the readers interests, but try not to affect the story too much; otherwise, it will become confusing to you in the long run, and a lot of things may end up not making sense anymore, or you might end up changing the whole thing.

(Short Version): Either buy Grammarly to fix word mistakes, or ask someone who is knowledgeable in writing.

[AnimeKitty]

I did something very similar with one of my stories. I edited and rewrote it countless times, feeling like I could do better with it. I just couldn't be satisfied with it, no matter how many times I changed things or fixed grammar issues. Even now, I could probably go back and rewrite the whole thing if I didn't let it rest and move on to other stories. You ought to give it a break for now. Let it set for months or even more than year. That way you can come back to it with a fresh mindset. If you want, you could also get yourself someone to review your story and give feedback if you really feel it needs fixing.

Is this story completed? If so, I'd say move on and work on something else. If not, just continue writing and edit once you've finished the entire thing.

[Ranty-cat]

Unfortunately, Grammarly has been extremely disappointing for me. It's fine at finding spelling errors, but terrible when it comes to grammar. Couple of times, it actually corrected the right grammar and suggested me to use the incorrect one lol

[Ranty-cat]

Thank you, fellow cat citizen. I appreciate your kind comment as it is so relatable. No. It's not complete yet. In fact, it’s still an infant and has a long way to go.

Ah, it’s difficult to find someone for reviewing. No one actually responds for some reason. I don't have any real life friends who are bookworms. So yeah ...

And. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll take a vacation for myself to refresh.

[BAFr]

Are you using Premium?

[Ranty-cat]

Nope. I would, but the sample failed me. So I lost my interest.

[BAFr]

I'm no Grammarly expert, but I do know that there are different "options" that will fix your grammar depending on what you chose.

[Ranty-cat]

Thanks. I'll give it a look.

[mrsubhanshud0]

The reason for that is, as you keep writing you grow yourself more and more as time passes and improve bit by bit. And it happens to many writers since their new chapters are comparatively better than the old ones so they keep editing them until it connects with them. But the next day, you improve a little more, which resets everything for you. So, the best option is to keep writing instead of editing 100s of times since your new chapter will always be better than the previous ones. Take care of the grammar since they are the most important aspect of giving a natural feel to the sentences.