#ive never had to do my aside btw mac is just stupid

[charmac]

whoops! not meant to be a leading question. i only ask because i’ve been writing a multi part story that i haven’t published yet and i feel like i’m constantly going back to make little tweaks to old sections. i find the writing process fascinating and i’m genuinely impressed that you haven’t ever wanted to change anything! (also btw loving the fic!)

Ohh, gotcha, haha. That makes sense!

It definitely happens to me when I'm writing chapters (right now for Chapter 11 I've changed a ton of scenes that I found weren't working for where I wanted to land), but once I publish a chapter it's basically as if I'm finalizing a portion of the story as canon.

I honestly find that publishing before I've finished writing the whole thing is more helpful that way, because it's slowly cementing what is actually real and canon, and what's still floating/undecided, and then I can use what the readers know as canon to further develop and build to the climax.

I have a hard time looking at my writing as always in flux, always editable, because I feel like I'll never settle properly if I do that. There has to be established, uneditable plots, scenes, and dialogue for me to move forward and build off of. I basically go into each chapter with one clear goal, and as long as I've met that goal then it's solid.

(I'll also say, something very nice about writing from 3rd person limited POV (or 1st, obviously) is if there's ever an omission or a continuity mistake, or something you write later just doesn't perfectly line up with what you've already established, it's very easy to explain it as the character's misinterpretation/forgetfulness/stupidity)