Overwriting and Editing Struggles: A Simple Strategy That Works

I am an over-writer by nature. I like to go beyond stating facts. I like my descriptions to have color.   

As a grant writer, I often deal with stringent word and character count limits—which are in direct opposition to my overwriting tendency. My writing process is never linear. I know that my first draft is not going to come out pithy and clean while my brain is sprouting out five different facts, three anecdotes and two quotes—all in the same sentence.

I worry that I won’t remember the edit I made to a sentence that I’m ‘attached’ to. Then I start the mental deliberations—should I edit this sentence or should I cut out the last line from the previous paragraph?  Enter writer’s block. Now I’m stumped.

Has this happened to you? If it has….here’s my very simple, low-tech solution.

Every time I find myself in an over-writing dilemma, I open a new document which I label ‘extra words.’ Now, whenever I make an editorial cut to my draft that I think might add back later, I just copy it over into my extra words document. Now I have a safe space for all my ideas to live, and I know I can go back to it at any time.

The funny thing is, I rarely resurrect any of the content from my ‘extra words’ document. And if I do, it’s fairly minimal. But it makes my writing process more effective, and gives me peace of mind.

 What simple tips and tricks to you use to help your writing process? Share your thoughts below!