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]

Ruthless betas are fantastic. I love them. I don't always agree, but almost always I do, and usually when I don't agree and leave something in, or don't fix something, I totally regret it later. A lot of times I'll have two people look at something that I'm having a terrible time with because if they both point out the same thing, then I really know there's a problem. And even better when my two betas do this, which is often, they attack it from two different perspectives which gives you a really clear perspective on what needs to get fixed.

I tend to let ideas simmer while I'm doing mindless things like laundry or dishes. Solitare sounds like more fun, lol.

I do tend to get carried away and 'over describe' things.

Heh, I have the tendency to do exactly the opposite. My betas are like "Okay, pris, WTF is going on here? What does he look like when he says this? Stop being lazy!" I tend to have talking heads and have even done things like left notes like this in the narrative:

[Big, awesome description and kickass action sequence with zombies and ninjas goes here.]

And then kept writing, and eventually returning to write said action sequence (or find a way around it - as writing action is as hard as writing sex, I think.)

[nithu]

I find writing action harder than writing sex. I have lots of experience of sex, but none of fighting ;)

[niniane]

I find fighting easier, TBH. I have fought (which probably simplifies things) and danced (which is kind of similar), so it's not that hard for me to figure things out. But sex is such a PITA. My mind goes to a happy place, and I just can't remember what happened. Well, if it's good. I suppose that I could write awkward, miserable sex...hmmm...