Breaking Writing Rules: Why It’s OKAY To Revise As You Write!

Posted on August 18, 2022 Updated on January 8, 2023

There’s an old writing rule that seems to supersede all rules, even Stephen King’s infamous quote on why he feels, “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Yes, despite King’s aversion to adverbs, the biggest writing rule every writer constantly gets lectured about is that we should never be concerned about revising while we’re writing.

We’ve been made to feel that if we don’t write, write, write it blindly down and let it out that somehow the spur of creative vision would leave us. We’d never be able to snatch it back or not capitalize on our creative juices while the flow is iron-hot. After all, that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about, isn’t it? A reported 427,653 writers were documented to have participated in NaNoWriMo in 2021. There are pros and cons to powering through your first draft without looking back.