Over Writing

I’m an over writer.  When I finished the first draft of my present manuscript it was around 110,000 words - now after a few edits it is significantly less.

Someone else told me they need to write themselves into a novel, and subsequently delete much of the first couple of chapters.

As with everything else, we all do things differently and need to find our own way.  Much of my over-writing tends to be repetition, and not just repeated words, or even sentences.  In my first drafts I can often find three paragraphs saying the same thing, and then there is the obvious element of backstory.  This and more is deleted in later drafts, leaving me then worrying whether I’m going to have any words left!

Realising I’m an over writer in fiction was an interesting revelation for me, as in business writing I tend to a minimalist bulletpoint style.

In contrast to the (relatively) sprawling nature of a novel, I do enjoy the constraints involved in writing to a word limit, especially flash fiction.

Here is one of mine from a while ago.

'I've been sitting here for eternity. Pretending. Passing time. We both know, but can't look each other in the eye. You used to carry me on your shoulders and now you struggle to breathe. I don't want you to go, and yet I can hardly bear to stay.'