I was three weeks into writing the second draft of my current novel when I’ve already started mentally plotting my next draft–namely, what I’m going to cut out of it. Now I’ve given in to temptation and stopped writing what I thought was going to be the second draft of this novel, and actually started planning this draft of my novel again.

Everyone who’s ever said anything about writing says you’re supposed to silence your inner editor; let me tell you, it’s harder than it sounds. Every time I write something–even if it’s a first draft–my inner editor is working overtime. It’s hard for me to remind myself that nothing is ever right the first time–or the second or even third time–and to just finish the draft. My inner editor is screaming in my ear, nitpicking every detail, telling me everything that’s wrong. Regardless of where I am in the process, my inner editor’s voice is hard to shut off.

I’m now realizing that writing is like gardening, in that anyone who engages in the activity has to do quite a bit of weeding–that is, in the case of writing, cutting out all of the scenes and plots that don’t serve the story. For the project I’m working on now, I need to boil down what the story is, and plot out plots and scenes that serve it. After I’m done this draft, I’m sure I’m still going to do a lot of weeding before writing the next draft.

Now I’m going to have to concoct a strategy for silencing my inner editor–but it’s going to be difficult.

Now, i understand quite a few of you other writers find it easy to tune out your inner editor while you’re writing, and only let them have the floor when your project is done and you need to revise it. But I can’t be the only writer in the world who has to endure the presence of my own inner editor during the process of writing any draft of any of my work.