Writing Guide: Locomotion · 1:49pm Jul 10th, 2013
This isn't what I'd call a trade secret, but I've seen very few people mention this. Too few, really.
At some point--for consistent writers, anyway--our writing-engine ignites. We have our plot vividly thought out. We have our characters exactly as they should be. We have all the horrible things we plan to do with them. And it spills out of us like blood from a deep gash. And it's f**king beautiful. The flow. The excitement. The click-clack of fingers hammering on a defenseless keyboard. Our story now exists; a glowing mass of unrefined drivel ready to be molded, to be tamed and crafted to greatness beyond comprehension.
And that, in and of itself, is the problem.
It's far too easy to forget the benefits of editing. As such, our writing becomes slow and deliberate, trying all too hard to craft 'the perfect paragraph' in one go. This is a folly that ALL OF US commit. We lose our momentum. Doubt and blank thoughts dam the creative flow. We realize, after a whole hour of staring at the screen, we've only written 50 words. We're ashamed, unfulfilled, disappointed, empty.
The remedy? Rest.
It's common sense, really. Some have to spend days from their computer, notebooks, or what have you. Others can look away for just a few hours and come back swinging. When you give yourself a break, when you allow your subconscious to catch up, your ideas stretch out for you like a 5-dollar hoe... N-not that I'd know anything about that. Don't be ridiculous. How DARE you accuse me! 
Anyhow, in the reoccurring mantra of Idle Prose, 'Editing. Fixes. EVERYTHING. And it's true. When our words spread on the paper like jam on bread, it's unutterably important to look at it afterwards. Just keep a barf-bucket handy. Our first draft is often the most unreadable pile of s**t ever conceived. The most important thing--and I can't stress this ENOUGH-- is we wrote it. It exists. In one hour we've cranked out 1500 words.
Are those words privy to the plot? Are they free of run-on sentences? Do they move the story along? Is the grammar good?
No???
Well then fix it, god dammit.
Craine...
Erm...Poetic?
But wonderful advice--trying it out ASAP
Well, time to get on it!