Under-writting

[Anne Lyle]

It seems wrong to me to have a target word count when you start. Maybe it will end up being a shorter book, does that really matter?

It would if you wanted to sell it in today's market. But yes, don't worry too much about length in the first draft, especially if you are a beginner. Focus on finishing the damned book!

That said, my second book ended up pretty close in word count to the first - I guess it's just my natural length...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Funny that, so far I keep coming out at the 80000-90000 natural range, which I know is a little short. I wonder is there a hidden pyschological thing there. I also tend to enjoy reading shorter books, too. Hmmm... attention span of a gnat, maybe.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Every draft I made of my book got bigger.

I started off writing the first draft at 75k, then the second came out at 120k. 140k after that. Then a fourth at 167k. After that I started editing it down because I had to. The fifth draft ended up as 92k, but it was only half the story that was in the fourth draft (I split the book in half). So considering that, the entire story would have been somewhere around 200k.

I don't think I under-write at all, infact I'm sure I over-write everything and have to put it on a diet afterwards. The story develops so much with every redraft though, which even with the tightening means it still uses more words.

 

[Vertigo]

It's interesting how many people are saying each draft gets bigger. I have never yet reached that stage so can't comment from experience, but my impression has always been that once written, editing is expected to do more cutting than pasting. Or do you consider re-drafting a different process and the editing comes afterwards?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I find that whilst the word count in each scene comes down as I tighten, Vertigo, I also tend to find I need new depth, so perhaps a new scene is added where a reader has said they need more background, or just where I feel there's a little more needed. So, it can be funny - I can go down by 4000 words, tightening, and up by 5000 adding. When I first did my first WIP it was about 150000 words, I then lost about 40000 in a back story and edited down to about 80000, rewrote and it went up to 110000, when I lost about another 40000 losing the last of the back story (that was the one on the writing group you commented on) and brought it back up to the current 100000 incorporating what was needed of the history and trying to give a hooky first scene. So, I find it a bit of both.

 

[Vertigo]

Yeah that makes sense Springs. Even in the little bit of work I've done I have found in editing I nearly always loose stuff, but then I realise there's something more to be said, more description needed, more thoughts, etc.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

One of the things that used to frustrate me was when an editor would say something like, "Cut the book down by 20,000 words and give us more about this, this, and this."

Make it longer and shorter at the same time? I would silently scream.

Eventually I learned how to do it.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

My first drafts usually look more like a script than anything else. I have dialogue, I have "stage directions"*, and I don't have anything else unless the Muse is being an uncharacteristically good girl.**

All the "scenery construction" happens in the second draft.


*Smile/Cry/Punch Character B in nose/Run like hell.

**I sometimes imagine the Muse is only a good girl on Christmas Eve, as she tries to undo a year of Naughty with one desperate night of Nice just before Santa delivers her just desserts. I hope I will not regret publicly teasing the Muse.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

My first drafts are always short. I don't edit them, but instead bin them and rewrite them.

 

[Venusian Broon]

One of the things that used to frustrate me was when an editor would say something like, "Cut the book down by 20,000 words and give us more about this, this, and this."

Make it longer and shorter at the same time? I would silently scream.

Eventually I learned how to do it.

Hi Teresa,

Would the editor tell you what areas should/could be cut down or removed(or perhaps bits of the book that were golden and you shouldn't touch)? Or was it just cull the wordcount?