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

[decantate]

My whole writing style is that Rule 17. Sometimes I have to be told to add in words so people can understand, but most of the time I try to give just a tiny bit of suggestion about where things are going so that the reader fills in the blanks. My entire Blood Poison fic was written without a beta and a lot of it was first drafts. I'm much better at taking out words than putting them in.

It's really kind of silly, me being a fanfic writer. I end up just telling the absolute bare bones of what needs to be said. If I could use a chemical formula or draw a diagram of what is happening, it would be so much easier.

I don't know if this answers your question. It's lovely to read everyone else's responses!

[prisoner_24601]

I'm equally amazed at the people who can write the very short stuff as well as the long fics. Do you write out longer stuff and then edit things down or does it come out short when you first write it?