Bashful Prose Sweeping The Nation

I remember reading somewhere that there are two types of writers. Some of us are Sweepers and some of us are Bashers. I've never found something that seems to so accurately summarise the two approaches to writing. I may have tried a bit too hard to incorporate a pun into this post's title.

Sweepers, like myself, are writers who get it all down first. They write, and they write a lot. They will do big chunks before going back and editing. These 'chunks' might just be a single chapter or might be the whole book. After it's all down on paper they go back to the start and begin editing. This makes absolute sense to me as I tend to get 'in the zone' when I write and need to keep going until I comfortably reach a point where I can stop, at which point I walk away and spend some time thinking about how to continue. Rinse and repeat, hang out to dry for a few hours, bring in, fold, first draft done. It also makes sense to me from an editing standpoint. I can't edit the beginning until I know what the end will be like, otherwise I'll end up editing myself into a direction I don't want to take the story.

Bashers are perfectionists. For them, writing and editing are synonymous. They fight for every sentence and by the time they reach the end of the novel it's a completed work. Where a Sweeper might edit a whole act at once after finishing it, a Basher will instead opt to edit each scene as it is completed. This gives them a clarity of direction and helps soothe the pain of constantly questioning oneself about whether the last thing they wrote was 'right'.

I don't want this whole post being about the pros and cons of Bashers and Sweepers, or a bashing of Bashers, or an extensive list of notable Bashers and notable Sweepers. I want it to be about how us Sweepers seem to get catered to a little less than the Bashers.

I do think the writers that edit as they go are more common, and I do think most Sweepers do some small editing as they go (changing sentences here and there, correcting spelling errors, etc). I also think that the advice often given surrounding editing is geared heavily toward Bashers.

I would, given the above, like to offer some of my own advice. Edit. Definitely edit. If you don't do full-on edits where you re-write entire scenes and alter character arcs and so on until you've totally completed the first draft then that's ok. If you finish writing a bunch of pages, then go back and edit them before moving on then that's ok too. What's important is that you do, one way or another, edit your work before you call it 'finished'.

Bashers, go a little easier on yourselves from time to time. It could be worth your while to write that next little bit before editing lest you write yourself into a corner.

Sweepers, don't get discouraged. You may not have edited yet but that's fine, you'll find it easier when you've completed the novel's first draft as the whole story will be clearer in your head.

Commenters, seeing as I have some now, which of these are you? Are you a methodical Basher or an unbridled Sweeper?

Tomorrow I'll be uploading a short piece of fiction I wrote a few years back. In true Sweeper spirit, it will be completely unedited.