Writing and editing are vastly different tasks. Both are essential and both must be undertaken. It’s important to know when you’re doing one vs. the other, and to ensure they don’t overlap—or when they do you recognize it and control it.

We often slip from writing into editing too quickly. You’re writing along and you come to a pause in your flow. Too often the next step is to go back, read what you’ve written, and start tweaking it. This is a move from writing to editing. You have ceased the flow of putting words onto the page and begun the process of analyzing what is there.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this switch. You just want to make sure it’s intentional. Don’t interrupt the flow of creating words to begin editing. Try allowing yourself to simply stop and think about what it is you’re trying to convey instead of bowing to the tendency to begin editing.

There are two primary types of editing.

The first is called copy editing. The effort in copy editing a manuscript in preparation for a next draft is in scrutinizing what is on the page, and spotting what’s not. Copy editing is an effort to flag sentences or paragraphs that aren’t yet working. It’s a macro effort.

The other type of editing is proofreading. This is a line-by-line effort to identify grammatical, word choice, or punctuation errors. This is sometimes referred to as line editing.

If you were to come and sit in my study and watch me write, you’d often see a fellow typing and sipping coffee; however, sometimes you’d see a fellow sitting, his hands resting on the keyboard, his coffee getting cold as he stares off into space. This is the part where flow has paused and thinking has taken over. It’s the result of a decision not to edit—not yet.