Once I got a comment in a writer’s group by a somewhat baffled writer. He had read Stephan King’s comment about the second draft being 90% of the first draft, and did not feel comfortable telling me I had to fill my story out more.

In nothing is it more important to know yourself than in the revision process. You will have to add things, and remove things, but which are specific to you.

To this instance of your work.

And to the particular passage you are working on.

Fortunately, you learn to recognize patterns. King apparently added more than was needed. You may too, but you need to know what.

Elaborate descriptions?

Scenes that don’t actually move the story forward?

Too much foreshadowing, which not only pads the story but means the dramatic climax is thundering anticlimax?

Foreshadowing the wrong things because your notions changed half way?

Sentences that could be half the length if you removed the dead weight and verbiage?

Meanwhile -- did you omit foreshadowing?

Or description because it was clear to you where characters were talking, so they appear as nothing but disembodied dialog?

Or characters’ motives? (There was a time, when I was young, when I could only figure out what the characters did on the first pass. Once I had the story in hand, then their motives were clear. Not until.)

And, of course, any given thing can be both lacking and superfluous in the same story.

This witty banter scene does not move the story forward, and makes the wits look more important than they are.

Meanwhile the heroes are supposed to be friends, so you need to -- hmm, have them walk down the street together to reach the HQ and talk on the way. Maybe buy a snack from the vendor and laugh at how a small dog, barking at a goose, discovers that the goose can chase it. Or whatever other byplay fits the story and convinces the reader that they are friends. (Double points if it sets up their skill set, but first and foremost, it convinces the readers they are friends.)

One complication arises if you want to have it a certain length for an anthology. Or even to fill out a collection of your own.

As every writer who settles into a 12,000 word story to pare it down to 10,000 words only to end up with a 16,000 one -- whether to add or remove can be surprising.

Sometimes you can simplify a story to contract it. Sometimes you can throw in complications to expand it. And sometimes you just have to live with it.

Writing can be like that.

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