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

[niniane]

I'm kind of amazed that you can do the whole simultaneous chapters thing. That is awesome, and yet seems confusing. ;) Thanks for sharing the process, though. That's super interesting!

[lenna_nightrunner]

It helps a lot that we lived together for three years and have been friends for six and a half years total now, several of them spent writing and editing for one another. Our processes are similar enough and we're in direct communication enough that the system works for us. It's certainly confusing at times, but easier than it sounds, and a lot of fun.