How to Stay Motivated While Editing Your Book
I love editing, but sometimes it’s difficult to maintain momentum. There’s so much to think about and so much to mend and it requires a lot of mental and emotional energy. Plus, as a right brain thinker, I’m usually more drawn to the writing process than the editing process, which feels like a left brain task.
Don’t get me wrong—there are definitely some aspects of editing that I do enjoy! I love getting constructive feedback, the excitement of tackling a new project, and the feeling that I’m making my work better. But it can be challenging to stay motivated.
Here are some of the things I’m doing to stay motivated during this round of edits for Deadwood Burning Draft 2. Hopefully they resonate with you too!
Right Brain vs. Left Brain Thinking
Before we dive into my favorite tips and tricks, I want to talk about our brains.
You’ve probably heard about the whole right brain vs. left brain idea:
The right side of the brain is associated with creativity, intuition, and big-picture thinking…
While the left side is more about logic, structure, and details.
It’s not as black-and-white as that, but experts do believe that some people are more naturally inclined to one side versus the other.
For me, I’m very much a right-brained thinker. So I thrive in the drafting stage when I can let ideas flow freely, follow my intuition, and create without restriction. It taps into my creative side.
Editing, on the other hand, feels more like a left-brained task (at least for my personal approach). Instead of giggling over the kiss scene I’m planning, I’m suddenly analyzing character arcs, fixing pacing issues, and trying to make that one headache-inducing fight scene make logical sense.
Writing = right brain, editing = left brain.
So, as a right-brained thinker, if I want to make a left-brained task like editing feel more exciting, I need to find ways to activate my right brain and creativity.
But of course, everyone approaches writing and editing differently. I know some authors who are extremely methodical while drafting and stick to strict, detailed outlines, which uses more of the left brain. Your editing approach will ultimately depend on your unique way of thinking.
If you also find yourself struggling to stay motivated while editing, it might be because your natural thinking style isn’t being stimulated. The key would then be figuring out how to bring more of your dominant side into the editing process, so it feels less like a chore and more…fun!
5 Ways to Stay Motivated While Editing Your Book
Staying motivated during the editing process can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Below are some of my favorite ways to maintain momentum and spark creativity throughout the editing process.
1. Print Out Your Manuscript
At the point of writing this, I’ve written and worked on edits for three books, which has taught me a lot about what works and what doesn’t (for me personally). The quality of my writing turns out so much better when I actually print out my manuscript during the editing process, and make my revisions by hand with red ink.
I think this happens for multiple reasons. First, seeing your work printed on the page makes it much easier to simulate what your readers will experience with a printed book. I’ve found it gives me a much better feel for the overall flow and pacing of my story as opposed to simply scrolling through a Google Doc.
Second, the act of physically writing out your edits with a colorful pen feels creative. I love scratching things out and writing notes in the margins and turning my pages into messy pieces of word art. You can also doodle on a printed manuscript. You can’t do that with a Google Doc. All of this puts me in a creative mindset.
And third, there’s something about seeing your work printed on paper that makes it so much more real and exciting. It makes me more excited about seeing it become a real book someday, which can be a great motivator.
2. Make a Reward System
Like many people, I respond best to positive reinforcement. I’m also very scatterbrained and my attention is usually all over the place, so a reward system is a great way to help me stay focused, see the whole picture, and maintain momentum.
While I’ll be making a lot of cuts in this draft, I think the amount of chapters will generally stay the same, so I decided to use chapters as my tracking metric.
My goal with this draft is to take it a bit less seriously and stop being so hard on myself. I’m getting way too caught up in my perfectionism and what I really need to do is trust my intuition and just get it done. So, I made this sloppy but cute little reward chart on a random piece of binder paper to embody this energy.
Which leads me to my next point.
3. Share Your Goals With Others
Sometimes, sharing your goals with someone else can be a great benefit for accountability. In my case, I shared my reward chart with my friend and asked her for help creating the rewards. So a lot of the rewards we’ll actually share together—like going out to brunch or going to the beach.
I also told her to yell at me if she ever comes over and notices that the chart on the fridge hasn’t changed. She has, in fact, been yelling at me. Which we love.
Having friends, family, or even your readers or audience on social media there to hold you accountable is a great motivator. So go find an accountability buddy!
4. Study Your Craft
If I’m feeling stuck, turning to my favorite writing resources helps activate my author brain. I love watching Brandon Sanderson’s free lectures on YouTube! Those were a big help while writing the first draft of Lone Player.
I also love Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel, which is incredibly helpful for not just the writing process but the editing process as well. It’s a great tool if you have any pacing issues to fix or need ideas for adding more conflict.
I also highly recommend The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles. I reference this all the time while writing. It’s literally a bank of different conflicts you can choose from to help your characters grow and keep readers engaged. I’ve been using this a ton while editing Deadwood Burning!
Even if you think you know your craft inside-out, I’m a firm believer that there is always more to learn, more to practice, and more to improve. Plus, I think learning more about what I love gives me some of that excitement I feel while writing a first draft—even if I’m editing.
5. Don’t Try to Do Everything At Once
I think it’s important to remember that you can’t fix everything in the second draft alone and sometimes you’ve gotta take it one chapter at a time to make progress.
While it is helpful to step back and take a look at the bigger picture, sometimes solutions don’t come to me until I’m actually in the scene, if that makes sense.
Approaching editing as a big-bite task usually makes me fear it and procrastinate. If I approach it in bite-sized chunks—focusing on making each chapter better than it was in the first draft—it keeps my creativity flowing and gives me the tools I need to fix the big-picture issues. Make sense?
And it helps to not be too hard on yourself. You’re only human. If you’ve written books before, you can’t hold this current draft to the quality of your previous finished pieces. That’s unfair and doesn’t make any sense. Just focus on making this draft the best it can be, and everything will fall into place.
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For some writers, staying motivated while editing can be a major challenge. But being kinder to yourself and taking intentional steps to sustain your creativity can go a long way. So pause, take a deep inhale, and breathe out all those mean, perfectionist thoughts that are holding you back. You’re making your book better, learning so much, and getting closer to holding that final copy in your hands—isn’t that exciting?
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Happy writing! xoxo