Today, Fable and the Verbivore are unpacking overwriting and underwriting - and how knowing which side of the writing spectrum we tend to fall into can help us edit our work.

It’s a shame free and introspective look at how we naturally prefer to write. We don’t have any shoulds here, other than noting how valuable edits can be towards making your work more balanced and that being familiar your own tendencies can help make your work stronger.

Throughout the episode, we talk about how we both come to this from opposite sides of the writing spectrum and therefore have contrasting viewpoints and experiences to share - different writing strengths, crutches, and revision and editing process that we use to balance out our writing.

The Verbivore tends to overwrite scenes, but to plot slowly in development and write only essential scenes in the drafting phase. Whereas Fable tends to underwrite scenes, but to write more quickly and ends up with more scenes than ultimately are needed. We unpack the positives and potential pitfalls of both our natural writing bents and discuss how our edits seek to make our work more well-rounded.

We also make the point that leaning in to drafting using our strengths to get the story out on the page, can be effective and efficient. Basically, realizing that it’s difficult to have all our writing lenses on at once. The revision and editing phases can then be used to address the things that don’t come as naturally and that require more active attention to write – in addition to addressing any writing crutches that we may rely too heavily on.

Here are a few editing tricks that we mention to help determine your strengths:

• Reverse outlining after the drafting phase helps you see the story points as it currently is on the page

• Highlighting the elements of your story (things such as dialogue, description, interior thoughts, action, world-building) to see where the balance may be off

• Look at the percentages of where your story falls within its story structure and ask questions of whether it feels like certain beats are coming too early or too late

• Watch deleted scenes from movies to get a better feel for what is essential and what’s not. Try removing things from your own work to see how it changes the story and decide if it’s necessary

Towards the end, we start to talk about getting emotional distance from your work, figuring out the spine of your story, identifying which darlings to kill, and learning from what other authors and creatives have to say about their story writing process.

Next week we’ll dig in further with ways to approach the decision of what should stay and what should go in our projects.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Definitions:

• Editing - Prepare (written material) for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it. Remove unnecessary or inappropriate words, sounds, or scenes from the text. Refining, polishing, making it more like itself.

Here are some articles and videos that we found helpful in preparation for this conversation:

• Medium Transcript Article of Quotidian Video “Writing Tips for Fixing Overwritten and Underwritten Prose”

• LitHub “12 Contemporary Writers on How They Revise”

• Aerogramme Writers’ Studio Article “Back to the Story Spine”

• Script Mag Article “SCREENPLAY STRUCTURE: The Spine of the Screenplay”

• Reedsy YouTube Video “Assessing Your Manuscript | How to Edit a Book #1”

• Ellen Brock YouTube Video “How to Edit Your Novel | Advice from an Editor”

• Mollie Reads YouTube Video “Self-Editing Your Novel: Tips from an Editor”

• Story Garden Publishing “Developmental Editing Tips for Authors (with Editor Angela Traficante) | Story Garden Publishing”

• Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader “What are the different types of novel editing?”

• WritersDigest “Alternatives to a Professional Edit”

• MasterClass “10 Tips for Editing Your Own Writing”

• MasterClass “Editing Essentials: What Is Developmental Editing?”

• MasterClass “What Is Line Editing? Line Editing vs. Copy Editing”

• MasterClass “Editing Checklist: How to Edit Your Own Writing”

• Reedsy “5 Types of Editing: Which One Do You Need Right Now?”

• Reedsy “What is Line Editing and How Can It Help Your Book?”

Books, Movies, and Graphic Novels Mentioned:

• Beach Read by Emily Henry

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)