Rule 17 Writing Question

[prisoner_24601]

Since I'm always curious about other people's creative process and how they write, I thought I'd ask the other fic writers on this community how much editing and trimming do you do to your work? Do you edit and trim at all? Write a first draft and then are finished? How much of your stuff ends up on the figurative cutting room floor? I'm wondering if other writers love to edit and pick at stuff the way I do or if they have an entirely different way of writing.

I know that for me, I'm a huge fan of Strunk & White's Rule 17 (Omit needless words) and that most of the time, I tend to do as much work editing, trimming and cutting my fics as I do on the actual first draft. And I've definitely had stories where my betas (or myself) have chopped huge parts out and trimmed the dialogue, etc... to pick up the pacing and the rhythm of the fic, and always my stories seem better for it.

So tell me your creative process because I'd love to know!

Comments

[prisoner_24601]

I've been very lucky with my betas. It's great to be able to hand over a fic that you know has a major problem and have them be like "Dude, NO" or "Fix this, dumbass." Except nicer, lol. And then the lightbulb goes on and you feel relieved because someone can see the problem and fix it.

Years ago when I was first starting out writing fanfiction for other fandoms, I made a pair of friends who were not only fantastic writers in their own right, but were also professional editors in real life. They really, really helped me get a feel for what was important to cut by taking a red pen to my stuff and just tearing it to pieces. But still, having a second pair of eyes is fantastic, although I don't do that for everything that I write (although perhaps I should).

[niniane]

Yeah, it's good to have someone around like that. It's very hard to have the necessary distance from your own work, I think. WE all believe that everything we write is awesome...which just isn't true!

I've been lucky enough to have some really good editors as well. Also, I've found that working on the writing of others helps. Like, reading through something and going "I don't like this, why?" can be super helpful. Since some of the time it's just YKINMK, but some of the time you go "woah! Too much exposition!" or "the characters all sound the same!" or "Nothing is happening in the plot!" And then you at least sort of know to look for that stuff in your own writing.

[prisoner_24601]

Oh yeah, I think editing and critiquing other peoples stuff is a fantastic way of learning how to be a better writer. When I used to leave concrit as reviews for fics that I read, that was exactly why I'd do it. I mean, I was hoping that I was helping the other person, but really being able to sit down and say "Oh I thought this worked well. I think it was because..." or "Hmmm... that didn't work well at all because..." is a fantastic way to learn how to write. It's unfortunate that concrit and critique seems to be frowned upon so much in the DA fandom as a whole.

[niniane]

Yeah, I'm kind of saddened by it as well. As it is a great way to learn (on both sides). I mean, I still secretly do it (as it's kind of fun to think "how could I write this better?"), but sometimes I wonder if it might be helpful to the authors if I shared the thoughts...but then usually I don't, as I don't want an angry response!