I've been slaving away and editing like a madwoman, but I just wanted to drop by real quick to tell you THAT IT IS POSSIBLE!
-- What's possible?
-- Deleting words.
-- No way.
-- Yes way.
-- But ... every single word in my manuscript is important! They're my BABIES! My BLOOD, SWEAT, and TEARS!
-- They may be important to YOU, but if (A) the READER won't miss them, (B) your story still makes sense after they're gone, (C) three sentences is just as good as a whole chapter, or (D) all of the above ... snip! snip! snip!
-- So how did you get rid of 9,000 words so quickly?
-- I combined two chapters.
-- Any other tips for deleting?
-- Adjectives and adverbs. Oh, and, let's say your characters' names are John and Susan. If John and Susan know each other, they do not have to ADDRESS each other in every other sentence. Cutting out names will help decrease your word count.
-- But I like words that end in -ly!
-- Spend your precious writing time on your dialogue and ACTION sequences instead.
-- You do realize you're having a conversation with yourself, right?
-- ... Yes.
* Blog posts like this happen when you don't eat/sleep because you're too busy writing, btw.
2 comments:
The thing that's getting me through the "snip" process is that I created a document called "Writing Graveyard" where I place all my elegant yet expository paragraphs that I've cut away. They still live on, but don't interfere with the reader's enjoyment of my work.
Yes! Writers work so hard to produce word count, I think you should ALWAYS save what you delete.
Post a Comment