Underwriting -v- overwriting

I have always been worried that in my fiction I tend to underwrite. Everyone I read about overwrites and then they cut, cut, cut. I felt I must be doing something wrong. Then recently I read a letter from a reader of Writing Magazine who worried about the same thing.So I was not alone after all!

I set off purposely to underwrite. I know my target and then write to between 10,000-15,000 less. I leave this margin because I know there will be stuff I haven't considered. I write quickly, sometimes extremely quickly and my aim is to get words on paper (sorry laptop). Later I will think about that piece and realise that the scene needs a bit of rounding, or in my haste I have left something not fully explained, even (like my current piece of writing) something I need to go back several chapters to check because I believe there is an inconsistency and I'll need to do a slight a re-write.

From this is sounds as if all I do is add, but that's not true. I do cut as well. I've cut nearly 1,000 words at a time if something isn't working. However, the underwriting is something I worked out for myself and only worried about when I began reading how other author's work. I also see my underwriting target as a slightly easier goal. But editing is something else. Like with poetry it is hard to know when to stop! I will do anything to avoid the process, partly because I get fed up with looking at the same manuscript. I don't find it as creative. I want to be telling new stories. And so I do, When an idea forms I start writing and I fall in love with it, abandoning my edits on a previous work. Yet, some time away helps and I know I must return to my first novel and get it finished ready to submit. By the time it's fully edited it will be overwritten!

The reader's query, which so worried her, was advised that underwriting was okay if she was a spluger (like me). So, I'd say it doesn't matter which way you write. Go with what works for you as long as you get the desired result. Reading about how author's work is interesting. I learn a lot and sometimes it's good to know what I am doing is very similar, but in the end writing is a creative process and nothing should stand in the way of that even if it is different from the way most author's work.

Fiction and poetry

Sustainer of like - cake! My courgette and lemon cake.
(The other half is in the freezer)

I've just been doing that stressful thing of online submissions so I thought I'd relax by posting on my blog!

I've gone back to my novel. Having done a quick edit of what I've written so far I'm pleased to say I still like my story, which is just as well as I've spent so much time on it, My method varies between thinking out the next 1,000 words before I write them (not good when doing this in bed as it keeps me from sleeping!) and writing straight on to the laptop with only a vague idea where I'm going. Both methods seem to work but I prefer the former. Am I writing notes? Er.....well if it is something I think I will need to refer to like a make of car, or a place that I need a description for, that sort of thing. I have my profiles (and family trees) which are working well, and a map I drew of somewhere as well as local information and maps collected on a visit.

The problem with not having your own writing space is that all my books and papers are stacked on one corner of the dining table and my laptop on the other. We end up not using the table for eating at as it's such a hassle moving everything (one of my sons has a claimed another corner to keep his keys, odd receipts and rubbish! and hubby the other corner). Everything gets moved now and then for guests (unless they are used to the mess in which case they slum it like the rest of us!). Once things get moved, papers go walkabout and I have to track them down again. One day it will all be worth it.....hopefully.

You may remember I told you that I was giving an episode of my 'online soap' to a friend to read. We met recently to discuss it. She liked the writing and characters. We talked about my concerns about quick changes in scene, the amount of characters, how it would fair on the internet (followers and the like) and where I should go next with it. Nothing was resolved and my friend suggested I put the episode on my blog and get feedback. This might be worth trying, but for now I've decided to concentrate on the novel as switching between two pieces of fiction gets confusing, where as fiction and poetry switch quite happily. Likewise another story which I began editing this year has also been abandoned for now and is somewhere under the pile.

Meanwhile I've been writing a sequence of poems on one particular subject and this is nice to go back to when I want a break from fiction. However, I found myself become obsessed with my sequence poems over the weekend and had to stop. I have some poems I'm really happy with as well as several in first/second draft form. I can't even remember where the idea came from for these poems but it's been good creatively.

Well, time for lunch over an episode of Doctors!  Happy writing.