Day 3 of Stay Warm and Write Month

Stay Warm and Write
with London Writers’ Club
Hello – so the third day of our Stay Warm and Write month and today we have a top tip from Sarah Lloyd-Hughes author of Brilliant Public Speaking (Pearson).

SarahDon’t over-edit
Last year I was landed the challenge of writing a book in 4 months. My first thought was – “Crickey, is that even possible?” My second thought was “Brilliant. Let’s get to it.”
In the end my tight deadline was a blessing rather than a curse for one very important reason – I didn’t over-edit myself as I was writing. I had a good plan of what I wanted to write because I’d already written an ebook on my subject. That helped hugely because I’d done all the tough thinking about which information should go where.
From there, it was just a question of keeping the key focus of each section in mind and writing, writing, writing until I’d got to the end. Only then did I go back and sharpen things up.
This was a crucial part of the success of the end result. Wherever I over analysed myself my writing became stiff, laboured and unpleasant to read. Where I was writing, writing, writing, I got into a neat, conversational flow that my readers enjoy.
All this self-edit stuff is not only time consuming, but it doesn’t always help the writing either.
So how about you decide not to edit yourself ONCE during January – just write and write and write. When February comes you can look at what you’ve written. I think you’ll be impressed with what comes out.

Author of Brilliant Public Speaking by Pearson, it’s worth looking at her fab blog, Ginger Doodles. http://www.gingerdoodles.com/
Right now Sarah is devising and writing her second book.

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