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

[amhran_comhrac]

For me it's not about trying to get to a set point and work backwards; I just like getting my ideas down on paper before I can forget them.
Like... today, for instance, I was in a cab and thought of a great bit of dialogue that won't really be applicable for another five or so chapters. But I came home and wrote it anyways, since I liked it and knew I'd forget it by the time I got to that section of the story.

And I might end up not using it when I get there, or changing it dramatically, but more often than not when I do something like that the whole section drops in just as I originally wrote it once I get to that point.