- Joined
- Jul 4, 2006
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I've seen two distinctly different approaches to writing and editing a first draft of a novel discussed in various threads.
There's the "write a bare bones first draft and flesh it out later with new subplots or new characters if you need more words" approach, and the "put everything you can think of in the first draft and cut out the fat if you have too many words" approach.
Personally, I am definitely the latter. The first draft of my WIP will be enormous. I'm guessing 150,000 words; so I already know I'm going to have to cut and then cut.
To me this seems to be the easier technique, but I suspect that's because this is what comes naturally to me. It seems like it would be very difficult to add new characters, subplots and scenes; but then I think about how difficult it is going to be to cut so many words and scenes and conversations that I labored so intently to create. I can't imagine doing that, either.
So, how about you all. What do you do?
There's the "write a bare bones first draft and flesh it out later with new subplots or new characters if you need more words" approach, and the "put everything you can think of in the first draft and cut out the fat if you have too many words" approach.
Personally, I am definitely the latter. The first draft of my WIP will be enormous. I'm guessing 150,000 words; so I already know I'm going to have to cut and then cut.
To me this seems to be the easier technique, but I suspect that's because this is what comes naturally to me. It seems like it would be very difficult to add new characters, subplots and scenes; but then I think about how difficult it is going to be to cut so many words and scenes and conversations that I labored so intently to create. I can't imagine doing that, either.
So, how about you all. What do you do?