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

[darkrose]

I don't do rough drafts; more often than not I'm writing to a deadline at the last possible minute. Mostly I edit as I go. My "beta" process usually consists of telesilla looking over the Google Doc for anything obvious before I hit post. When I do have a formal beta, it's in Google Docs, which has really been a godsend to me.

In previous fandoms, Ruth an I did a lot of co-writing, and we generally used the same group of friends as betas. The two we ask most often have some definite style sensibilities, including avoiding adverbs (especially those that end in -ly), a preference for straightforward, unflowery prose, and a fanatical adherence to the "show, don't tell" principle. As a result, my style, such as it is, can be spare to a fault. I rely on the fanfic shortcuts, like being able to skimp on description because I assume a certain amount of audience knowledge.

I have started doing outlines, or at least plot summaries. I don't always follow them strictly, but it at least gives me a place to start.

[niniane]

I rely on the fanfic shortcuts, like being able to skimp on description because I assume a certain amount of audience knowledge.


OMG, this! At some point I realized that in ffic, people know who the characters are...I don't need to tell them! It was like some ray of magical insight that made me realize "I don't need to tell boring parts of the story", and people will still know what I'm doing because they've played the game! It was the best feeling ever!

[prisoner_24601]

Yeah, I agree. This is something that I tend to do as well. I mean, you're writing for a specific audience who has presumably already played the game so already has the necessary background that you don't really need to cover. This can lead to bad habits though when you go back to original writing - you have to remember to turn that part back on, lol. But I think it's a good idea to do with fanfiction.

I cheat a lot too since this is a game where there are a lot of different possibilities. I think it's sort of important, when you're writing a one shot especially, to flag the reader pretty quickly what scenario you're in. Tossing in the warden's last name in the first paragraph, leaving hints about what past choices have been made in the narrative as you go along is pretty important. So it's sort of a different challenge.

[elysium_fic]

I rely on the fanfic shortcuts, like being able to skimp on description because I assume a certain amount of audience knowledge.

This has been one thing I have been trying NOT to do.

At present, I'm writing some of the best stuff I've ever written. And I want to share it with some people who are not DAO fen themselves but who have been with me through other writing endeavors. So I've made a conscientious effort to include crucial information that are very well-known to DAO fen, but would leave non-fen floundering with a big "Um, what'd I miss here?"

Today's chapter is a great example. The scene with Teagan and Isolde wasn't necessary at all... unless you're coming at it from outside the fandom.

[darkrose]

And I think you do it well. But I'm lazy. *g*

I've also learned that the more worldbuilding I have to do, the less actual writing I get done. For our vampire epic, I've done intensive research on Imperial Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Crusades, Tudor England, and the Jacobites; a good chunk of the UCD collection on Jewish history in the first century CE is in my apartment....and we've written maybe 5% of the overall arc.

[elysium_fic]

Yeah, that would be pretty daunting for me too, I imagine.

[darkrose]

And see, the problem is that we don't have to do all of that! But because we're both history geeks who enjoy worldbuilding, we get so focused on the research that the reason we're doing it gets lost. We did what was supposed to be a one-off, porny wingfic once. We ended up using the worldbuilding as entertainment during our cross-country trip, figuring out the global implications of 10% of humans being born with working wings--including the logistics of the Winter Olympics for wingfolk.

If DA were my universe, Origins still wouldn't be out, because I'd be trying desperately to plug all of the canon holes and running out of fingers. Since it's not mine, I can say, "Eh, since it's not mentioned in canon, I'm going to handwave that."

[prisoner_24601]

Oh yeah I totally understand writing under a crunch. A lot of my prompt stuff falls under this where there's a fic deadline and I'm busting my ass to try and get it done so while I'd love another pair of eyes to look at it, I never get it done in time for that.

Outline are an interesting... hmmm... I should have asked about that too as I'm all curious about that now. I don't generally write things long enough to require them anymore other than the one chapter fic that I'm shocked to find myself working on. I like outlines, myself. I tend to deviate from them and change them as I roll along (as the characters sometimes don't behave) but it's really great to have a place to start and at least a general direction of where you're going.