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]

I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who does that. For a month or so straight I was posting a six thousand word chapter every day. Which isn't a TON, but that's in addition to doing about as much writing for school at the same time, and almost as much on my original fic.

But yeah, it does get troublesome. I'll be sitting writing away and, say, set dinner on fire. (well, that just happened ONCE), or forget I had started to fill a bath. or some other stupid thing I should be more than smart enough not to let happen. But when I get in that mood I just CAN'T STOP. Like, I've banged out chapters on my iphone in an email because my roommate was going to the laundromat and, not having a car, I had no choice but to go with him.

I actually did a brief paper on hypographia for a class this past semester- Dostoevsky had it. It's tied into other compulsive behavior disorders and addictions in a strange way. When he wasn't writing, which he would often do to the detriment of everything else in life, he was a compulsive gambler who lost almost every penny he had ever made. Some people think Hemingway might have had it, and when he wasn't writing (and even when he was on occasion) he was a raging alcoholic.
So... strange stuff. Since it isn't necessarily healthy to do ANYTHING to the point that you ignore everything else (which I admit I do), but it seems like for a lot of the known or strongly suspected cases, that's the least destructive path compared to their other compulsive behaviors.

[1smut_princess]

I don't have any addictions excluding cigarettes (damn why did they have to ban proper cloves here in the States? :grumblesnazzlefrass: DON'T SMOKE KIDS!), and I don't have any compulsive disorders - what I do have is a thing with my brain wiring being all off. A sort of learning disability - but while I will go into the machine writing mode, I am capable of doing other things at the same time. Usually I'm on the phone or taking to someone face to face - and the conversation may, or may not have anything to do with what I'm writing, and there's several trains of thought plotting out things that don't have anything to do with the writing at all.
Dysgraphia/agraphia - it causes the body a hard time with fine motor skills (which is weird as I play several instruments...) but I can't hold a pen very well at all as an example. It's been hypotosized by one of my old psych profs (and my husband also believes this) that my brain went and made up for that mis-wiring in my head, giving me multitasking skills when it comes to thought processes. I'm not happy unless I'm doing a minimum of two things at once - if I don't, then I can't superfocus on the main item and get out whatever needs to come out.
While I'll definitely ignore all my body's needs in that state though, I don't seem to ignore other things that need to be done by and large....