Short/under
I’m an under-writer. I tend to trace a story out using the faintest of lines, leaving half of the page blank, leaving half of the words in my head. Then I have to go back and shore up what I’ve written, making sure I’m not expecting a great feat of telepathy from the reader. For me, editing is a process of filling out rather than cutting.
I think that’s why I was drawn to short stories. For one – obviously – they’re short. But more importantly, you don’t need to know all those minute details: what colour a character’s underwear is, how they got that scar on their knee, why that particular building has a broken window. That kind of detail isn’t necessarily important (unless it is) and it can be left out (unless it can’t).
The reader does half the work by filling in the white space.
Other people are over-writers. I have met writers who can start out with a bang:
