Writing tip 3 - avoid imposing interpretation - sometimes

Editing the sky

Well, of course, all tips are made to be untipped - there are exceptions to the rule - but I have often reinvented this one for myself: the more I cut away , the stronger the writing seems to become. This is nothing new. Any course on writing will tell you not to preach, but it's easier said than done.

The key is to let the bald story do the work and to relinquish control over manipulating the theories the readers might want to form. I don't want to tell the reader what to make of a character, or a story. I figure that's their job. Risky business, but what can you do?

First draft, of course, is open slather. Write whatever you feel like.  I'd go so far as to say it's necessary to overwrite the first draft. Throw everything at it; all the purple prose you can dream up. You never know - you could just come up with the perfect, original metaphor.  Plus, it gives you stuff to cut out. What is edited out forms a kind of subtext, a feeling of depth - that something has been left unsaid. I think that it's in these spaces that the story really starts to live.

Once I have an idea of what the story is going to be, I start cutting back, but not before. That stage might take a year, or a couple of months. It doesn't matter. At this point I really try to start sticking to the what, rather than the why. This means dialogue, actions, body language, thoughts - but exercising restraint in developing fully formed, or fully explored thoughts too soon. It takes patience, and self-discipline (two attributes not particularly well-formed within my own personality). Gradually a picture emerges as characters get to know one another, and readers reassess their original perceptions. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Writing Prompt

Take an old story or piece of writing, save the original copy and a new copy and edit the new copy within an inch of its life. By comparing the two side by side you will be able to tell how much cutting the writing can take before it ceases to make sense.