Advice for beginning writers

Part two: Editing comes in stages

• You can’t expect to get it right the first time, so don’t even try. The purpose of a first draft—be it a page, chapter, or even the entire novel—is just to get your main ideas on paper (especially if you are prone to forgetting your plotline, then it’s really important that you write it out before forgetting it entirely). So in your first pass through, JUST WRITE. Never mind the convention errors—there will be a ton of them—never mind if your story is even chronologically sound, or if your world history is a bit skewed, mixing the Egyptian pyramids with President Andrew Jackson—although that would make for an interesting story—but never mind all that. Get the words on the page and then read through your work to see what a horrendous writer you are and wonder if you even want to continue with this hopeless endeavor.
• Let me note that it is perfectly fine to edit as you go—I do after all—but I usually tend to just edit the small things, like using “there” instead of “their,” and these small things are recognized immediately and changed accordingly. But sometimes when you can’t think of just the perfect things for your characters to say, substitute some lame dialogue in its place until you can come up with something brilliant.
• While editing your work, it would be extremely helpful if you let someone else edit your work with you. I know it’s scary to let someone look at the masterpiece that is your work, but your ultimate goal is to have it read by millions right? So start with a couple of people by letting them edit your chapters/stories, make comments on it, and read though them to see if they can be used to enhance your work.