One reason I don’t look back over the previous day’s writing is because I know what I’ll usually see:
Blah, blah, blah.
When I get an idea or have characters in a conversation, I can just milk the scene to death. Oh, I have my plan for the chapter (my mini outline.) I have a sense of how long my chapters are, although I don’t put in chapter breaks for the first draft.
But I will just keep on going. I know I’ll be editing out a ton for the second draft, anyway. And who knows what bits I’ll like best? So I’ll overwrite.
When I was a kid, essays had to be a certain number of words. I remember bloating my writing with all kinds of junk just to hit my word count.
I’m thinking that today’s kids really know the art of brevity. Texting encourages it, and so does Twitter. Oh, and Facebook status updates can only be so long, too.
When my son came home sick from school a couple of weeks ago, I got a text from him: Help me.
What’s wrong?!? I texted back, with some alarm.
Sick.
And he did have the flu (again!), so it was genuine. But he knew how to rope me in and get me over to the school office pronto.
There was no rambling plea to be picked up, no over-the-top descriptions of fever, chills, or muscle weakness…nothing. The starkness of the message was enough to get me in my minivan and over to the school.
I think some scenes do well with a minimalistic approach:
Action scenes are great places to put short, choppy sentences and very little description.
Scenes where you’re including a shock or surprise to a scene.
Scenes that play a very functional, set-up purpose. (And you might want to analyze whether you need a whole set-up scene to begin with.)
Descriptive scenes (which I’m not all that crazy about to begin with.) It’s a little boring when an author waxes poetic in their basic descriptions of weather, a spring day, a pretty lady, etc. Short and sweet and clear, I’m thinking.
Do you write sparsely the first time around or do you edit out the bloat later?
Short and to the point does get our attention, especially where children are concerned. In a mystery it keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next.
So short and sweet here: an award for you at Thoughts in Progress. :)
ELizabeth – What a wise reminder about brevity! I find that if I don’t rope myself in, I tend to write long, long conversations. That’s fine sometimes, but there are times when a short couple of sentences is enough to convey the point. That’s what drafting is for, though…
I liked your directives of when to use brevity. Helpful advice!I tend to verbosity in my drafts. I find it helps me figure out background and setting and silly details that will get pruned soon enough.
great post-I think I do a little of both to be honest. I go back and see where I’ve overwritten one scene to death and another not enough. Leave it to me to be difficult. :0)
I guess it’s my journalism training, but I seem to write pretty spare first drafts and then have to go back and beef them up. Maybe what I’m really doing is writing an outline with the first draft…hmm…that’s an interesting thought (for someone who doesn’t write outlines!) LOL
Heidi
I’m getting better at writing sparsely :)
I had a high school teacher who liked us to say the same thing 3 or 4 times in different ways to get the point across. Drove me batty!
I write short and sweet and then always have to flesh it out more. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
I think my first drafts are a little on the sparse side. Then I push things, i.e. scenes, dialog, internal monologue, some description, really overwrite but often find the gems at the end of the overwrites, things I may not have discovered if I hadn’t let it flow. Then I do lots of deleting:-)
My first drafts are skin and bones. Then on subsequent drafts I try to fatten them up, but it’s hard to do, at least for me. Maybe I’m just lazy.
Very true. It’s interesting to think what the weaknesses in writing of the next generation will be, though. I’m sure some of our teachers can help out here.
Also, I like to trim my writing by cutting a lot of ‘thats.’ I abhor that word!
ALSO-You have an award at today’s award post! I’m excited to finally get to pass one on to you! Thank you for being such an inspiring writer, blogger and friend.
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
Good advice, per usual. I usually write sparsely. Unlike how I eat. Sigh.
This is the second good post you’ve had about this. At the moment, I find I need to do the opposite. I think that the years of screenwriting have caused me to write too tight.
Or actually, I still blather a bit, but I stop myself from really exploring deeply enough.
But of course, that’s for early drafts. In the next draft you cut the blather….
I have to use yesterday’s writing to get me moving the next day, so I edit as I go. That doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of stuff that I leave in because I’m not sure if it’ll be needed later. I end up cutting a lot on the second draft, but at least my plot threads tend to hang together.
I’m a sparse writer and then I go back and fill in the details. I like to know the story is going in the proper direction and then I go back and give everyone clothes. (description)
ann
“Brevity is the soul of wit” is the quote from Shakespeare I use the most. :)
~Cleo
When I was a child, I found it very difficult to write enough. My writing style was extremely condensed. When I began writing crime manuscript, I learned to expand a bit. Then I took a writing course and learned to omit everything that was not strictly necessary, especially adjectives and adverbs. So now I can crame a whole story into 2-400 words, but I think I will have to relearn writing novels.
I am not even sure I believe texts are necessarily better because you stick to the bare bones. But at leaast I CAN write that way now.
Lean. I write lean. CPs ask for more description often. That’s all. :)
I’m rather basic the first time around, although a bit of dialogue usually goes out the window. But details I add later.
I usually leave quite a bit out. Not a whole lot. But I write a lot more in the beginning knowing I can dump what’s not needed.
And ironically, I usually have to add a lot elsewhere as well. GO figure!
I let ‘er rip when in first draft get it all down mode. I spend more time self editing and revising, cutrting the fat and refining the story than I do throwing it all up on the pages, lol.
Marvin D Wilson
Mason–Good point! And thanks so very much!
Margot–Me too! Conversations that go on for ages. I think I’m just figuring out where the discussion is going? I just make a face as I’m writing it…I know it’s going to be sliced and diced up later.
Faith–It’s like we’re thinking out loud, isn’t it?
Kristi–I think I’m difficult, too! But it does get better as I go along.
Heidi–That’s very interesting! It does sound like you’re writing just a really well-developed outline.
Ann–Ha! My characters aren’t wearing any clothes in the first draft, either…
Jemi–Oh my goodness…your high school teacher would have driven me batty. Fortunately, one of mine had been a journalist and I think she convinced other teachers to adopt her essay teaching method.
Teresa–I think whatever works, works!
Cleo–So true! And thanks so much for popping by, Cleo!
Paul–That’s what I think, too–sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough that way.
Alan–I somehow don’t see you as the lazy type. Not with a book series on your hands!
Michele–I cut out a lot of ‘that’s’, too. And ‘justs.’ And ‘sighs.’
Thanks for the award!
Simon–Lean mean writing machine. :)
Alex–Details are good second draft stuff.
Glen–More fun to write skinny than to eat skinny!
Daring Novelist–I think screenwriting would be great training for sparse writing–just like journalism.
Terry–I’d rather have too much material than too little. Although it seems like I have to still go back and add text later to most drafts.
Diane–Sometimes we have to warm ourselves up to writing by gushing at the start of the book! I do that, too. I know it’ll get axed later.
Marvin–I’m pretty sure I’ve got revision time and writing time about equal now. Although it used to be way out of whack either one way or the other.
Dorte–You’re so good at writing flash fiction that I’d bet it’s hard for you to make the change to longer fiction! You’ve got it down to the bare bones, making every word count.
I find it difficult to write without editing. I tend to write a chapter, then go back over it and work on it. Guess it’s the editor in me messing with the writer.
Helen
Straight From Hel
I found your comment “..I don’t put in chapter breaks for the first draft” to be inspiring. I worry a lot over chapters; are they too short, too long, did I cover what I said in the outline, maybe I should move it someplace else in the story and on and on. I’m taking your comment to heart and for my first draft I’m leaving out the chapter breaks and just writing the story, start to finish.
Thanks much. Cat
Helen–I’d think that, being a professional editor, it would be really tough to put that aside and just write.
Cat–I was like you…I worried over them too much. And it takes NO time to put them in during the second draft. When I’m writing I’m aware sometimes that I’m writing a cliffhanging moment that might make a good chapter end, but that’s really it. Worrying over chapter breaks was just one of those technical details that seemed like it tripped me up when I was in creative mode. So I stopped doing it. :) Hope it helps you out to ditch them…it definitely helped me.
Helen–I’d think that, being a professional editor, it would be really tough to put that aside and just write.
Cat–I was like you…I worried over them too much. And it takes NO time to put them in during the second draft. When I’m writing I’m aware sometimes that I’m writing a cliffhanging moment that might make a good chapter end, but that’s really it. Worrying over chapter breaks was just one of those technical details that seemed like it tripped me up when I was in creative mode. So I stopped doing it. :) Hope it helps you out to ditch them…it definitely helped me.
My scenes are fairly brief and to the point, but my writing can always use trimming. Stray words like “that”, “just” and, well, “like” pop up far too much.
I definitely fatten up the prose with rambling on my .
Poetic is boring? Ha! You and I must be opposite writers. I love a poetic passage and feel a stark read is decidedly uninteresting.
I was born in the wrong century.
Corra
from the desk of a writer
LOL. That should say ‘on my first draft.’
Internet gremlins!!