Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

I wrote a freakish amount on Monday. Today I'm writing in description to this first draft. I was wondering is description something you add in later or do you write it all in at once? Or while starting the first draft of a project, do you leave out dialogue? Or is your writing more dialogue driven?

This should be interesting. When I first started I was prone to exposition, but as I have become more experienced my writing has evolved. I feel as if dialogue is one of the best ways to move along a story, and my writing has become more and more dialogue driven. I write first person, so even the non-dialogue is becoming more like the thoughts inside the character's head which reads a lot like dialogue. The only parts that are a bit different are the action sequences.

Generally I'll write the details in from the start, but that's not always the case. If I'm not in the mood to write a particular scene, I don't bother with the details and hurry onto the next event. The same is true for scenes I feel need more research. I'll just make notes to flesh them out later.

I also write everything in the first draft: descriptions, dialogue, actions, etc. But usually the story has so many holes and the grammar is so terrible that I have to do revisions through multiple drafts.

Sometimes I laugh at myself, unable to believe that I wrote that.

I find that emotional scenes and fight scenes are some of the first scenes I write when I write. Usually they are the most detailed until later on in the draft :]

There's nothing that I really leave out on purpose when drafting. Both description and dialogue has it's own challenges but I can't really say I find one more problematic than the other. I do sometimes find that the description helps me "get into" the scene a bit more than not having it. However, if I get stuck on a description and I'm trying to draft quickly, I might reduce it to just a couple of sentences and add more later.

Plot, dialogue, blocking. But most of all tone and setting.

I often go back to add in more description in the second draft. I tend to leave out things like descriptions of people and places, sights and sounds, etc. the first time around, so focused on dialogue and action.

I tend to create first a plot outline so when I stop I know where I am when I return. And even then, characters tend to come formed in my head usually so I wait and see what 'they' say. That's what happened with my first ever manuscript.

Bisky wrote: "I wrote a freakish amount on Monday. Today I'm writing in description to this first draft. I was wondering is description something you add in later or do you write it all in at once? Or while star..."

I usually write everything all at once, but in the 2nd draft I may add in description if I feel the passage needs it. It's very rare for me to ADD lots of description because I typically feel like books need far less description than we are accustomed to seeing. I give just enough to know what's going on, typically.

I think maybe description takes a backseat for me becuase I have to get the characters conversations down quickly. I think dialogue comes more naturally to me and I have to sit and think about the descriptions.

My first draft is dialogue and action driven, while descriptions are only sketched.
I'm almost at the end of the first draft. But here is where I have to write the most terrifying scene in the whole story. I have to brutally murder a character. And I'm not ready