I am a chronic underwriter. It’s something I’ve had to accept. My first drafts are lean, clocking in between 35k and 50k words for the first pass. It’s because I’m in a race to the end and my first goal is to get out as much as fast as possible. Details, unless they’re especially loud, are for the next pass (I like to think of it as draft 1.5 since I’m not editing or revising at that stage.) For my first draft, my goal is to get out as much as possible as fast as possible. Many sections are just the scene highlights. I’ll drop a searchable tag to fill in later if I don’t have enough ideas for that section. I don’t start out with chapters because I’ve found it easier to break it up later. If I know what I want to put in a section I’m skipping, I’ll drop a note of what happens next; otherwise, I leave a generic tag and come back later.
At the beginning, when I’m testing certain ideas or character voices, I’ll write minor scenes of whatever is in my head. It’s part of the process to get my brain ready for such a large project. Whatever I wind up keeping, I copy and paste into the document. Sometimes when I get stuck, I’ll work on those side scenes as well to keep the ideas going when I get stuck. As a result, when I’m done with the main body, I’ll go through and add in the rest of those. After I’m done with the main body, however, I’ll try to take a break between writing the last two steps I’ve outlined so far.
After that, I’ll let the draft sit for a while, and do something else. Other story-based things get pushed aside towards the end of a draft; Whatever televesion shows, games, and books I wound up abandoning in the crash course to get my story out, I can pick back up. That’s a lot of what fills my time between projects. I have a variety of interests when it comes to media, and I cycle through things constantly. Time between projects gives me time to enjoy the various stories that inspire me.
Once the manuscript has sat for a while, I’ll go through it for draft 1.5. During draft 1.5, I’ll fill in all those areas I skipped in the rush to get the overall story out. I’ll add in all the description I skipped the first time through and fill in all the places I skipped to get to the end. After that, I’ll let it sit again, and then start on the actual draft 2.
In the revision stage, I’ve found I still need to add things, so instead of cutting there is more that gets added. Sometimes my descriptions are still too lean, sometimes it’s just too short and instead of cutting padding, I need to add some to make it flow better. I still go through and cut extraneous words and anything that doesn’t fit (every author has to kill at least a few darlings and I’m no exception) gets cut. Because while I need the extra content, every word still has to count, and keeping extra words just for padding will make it drag instead.
It can be a delicate balance to find the best way to both add and subtract, but the more I do it, the easier it gets. I doubt I’ll ever have to pare a manuscript down instead of continuously adding to it until it’s the right size. So far this seems to be the best method for my writing style. As long as I wind up with a manuscript I’m proud of, it’s good enough for me.