I've know this about myself for some time, but I tend to be very wordy. I always overwrite first drafts. I've come to accept this, and just let myself ramble when initially writing. That's what editing is for, after all!
The amount of overwriting I do tends to go up when I'm having difficulty with a section. I guess if I'm having trouble writing, I'll say too much just to feel like I've said something. But sometimes that can mean that a 200 word passage will get cut down to 125 words when I go back to it. That's a lot of extraneous wordage!
I recently did first edits of the four stories I penned right after finishing my novel, and one of them in particular required a lot of trimming. Here's an excerpt:
First draft:
"I grabbed both my wands, my time machine, my emergency bag, and my emergency stash of food and then peered out my window. There were a few cars across the street with people sitting in them. They could be watching my building, though I hadn't been paying attention before so I didn't know how long they'd been there. I decided another distraction was in order; just to make sure I could safely get away." (74 words)
Second draft:
"I grabbed both my wands, my time machine, and my emergency bag and fodder stash before peering out the window. There were a few cars across the street with people in them. I hadn't been paying attention earlier so I didn't know how long they'd been there. Another distraction was in order." (52 words)
That's a reduction of almost a third, and I think the second one flows much better.
I'm not sure why I tell things too blatantly the first time around, but I've learned that my writing goes faster when I just let myself do it and don't self-edit right away. If I try to write things succinctly the first time around, I might not get more than a paragraph or two written in the course of a difficult day because I'll be too busy trying to make it sound right. And that can really disrupt the flow of a story.
Do other people do this? What's your process like?
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