Comments on: Would you rather be in the Adds or the Takeaways? https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/ Sun, 20 Mar 2016 16:10:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.27 By: danpowell https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-974 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:16:33 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-974 Thought provoking post. I would say that most of the time I fall into the Takeaway group, but a few piece I have written lately and one flash fiction I am working on right now have me working in the Add party. I prefer taking away though. Pruning the unnecessary stuff is easier than filling in the gaps.

]]> By: Keisha https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-957 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:56:56 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-957 Tend to go in with the full intention of taking away, but somehow ending up with more than I started!

]]> By: Sarah Salway https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-888 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:37:16 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-888 Hah! Great post. I’m a takeaway too, but a very very reluctant one. Hate losing a word until it’s gone and then I nearly ALWAYS think, ah, so much better! But where I do add is normally details of place. First time round I seem to concentrate on characters and action, and so it’s good to work on rooting most fiction pieces.

]]> By: Kathleen Dixon Donnelly https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-876 Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:39:40 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-876 Sorry–firmly on the side of the Takeaways. Write long and cut. Dump it all down on paper, then go back and edit, edit, edit. It’s not the writing, it’s the re-writing.
As a class assignment I tell my students to write a 60-second spot, cut to a :30, then a :10. I can instantly spot those who wrote a :10, added some rubbish to make it a :30, then more rubbish to make it a :60.
So add if you will, but don’t add rubbish!

]]> By: Nick Le Mesurier https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-815 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:51:56 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-815 Add, take…add a bit more, take a bit more. I’ve never been good at making that rapid first run, just getting it down in some kind of mad splurge. As I go on I find the ‘it’ emerging between the lines and I want to go back and make ‘it’ clearer before moving on. But in the end, I end up taking out great chunks of what I’ve built up oh so slowly and painstakingly, usually to good advantage.

That said, I think my method has something to do with not having more than an hour or so at a time to work on something – and that only if I’m lucky and am not too tired. Its different when I’m on holiday, say, and have a whole day or even half a day to work on one thing.

]]> By: Fiona https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-814 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:36:07 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-814 This is really interesting folks.

Thank you Erika for the loan of the body metaphor. As soon as I read your post I was relieved that someone else was in the Adds.

I know what you mean Kate about envying the Takeaways and their word counts. Next time someone asks me how far I’ve got with a story I might just lie.

Georgina, I think I need to refine my categories a little further. A fractal is a beautiful and very elegant image!

Alex, thanks for stopping by. It’s interesting what you said about final edits and working on those themes that emerge. I’m like this with imagery, thinking about what I can add to really make those images resonate and connect with each other. This is one of the more fun parts of the writing process.

Rob, I agree that having too many bones to begin with can be a killer. (As an Add I’m pretty much obsessed with making sure the story structure is in place first – I don’t seem able to write otherwise.) It sounds like you have a good balance in your approach.

Fiona x

]]> By: Rob https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-813 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:14:02 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-813 I’m going to stretch Erika Robuck’s body analogy to breaking point. My first draft is more likely to be a skeleton and, yes, I add layers to make the body complete. But, working on the first draft, I often find that I had too many bones to start with (the initial scope was too ambitious) and these have to be discarded. Then after adding and adding I find that there are too many layers and the body is ‘flabby’, or there is too much adipose tissue obscuring the muscle. That’s when, in those final two or three drafts, my scalpel becomes a more useful tool than my pen. So, on balance, Fiona, put me in the take-away camp.

]]> By: hampshireflyer https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-811 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:54:25 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-811 I’m totally a Takeaway! Except when I get to the last edit I turn into an Add so that I can pick up on extra themes I’ve noticed and thread them through the rest of the story. Then I usually have to do more Taking Away…

]]> By: georgina https://fionajoseph.com/are-you-in-the-adds-or-the-takeaways/comment-page-1/#comment-810 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:53:41 +0000 http://fionajoseph.dev/?p=1351#comment-810 I honestly don’t know which I am! I tend to start with not enough words, but usually take away some before I add any more, then take more away again, proceeding in small increments… Probably makes me an adder. Perhaps I’m more of a multiplier, though. Or a fractal. My stories tend to start from one tiny image that repeats itself through various permutations, until I put a stop to it by typing ‘The End’.

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