Editing. The ugly word. We’d all like to think that our first draft is perfect, and that the publisher is going to instantly write us a check for a million dollars after eagerly reading our books.
I blasted out my first novel in a few months, and at first I arrogantly assumed every one of the 179,000 words was perfect. There was nothing that could be cut from my books! And arrogantly, I decided that some chapters that my wife correctly pointed out dragged on and on were so crucial to the book, that I’d rather then not be published rather than cut them. I was sure that any publisher would back down and agree.
My writing kept me focused on my books, but at one point I got restless and began working on some movie scripts. When I came back to my first novel, the first thing I did was – cut out those chapters I’d insisted were so crucial!
What do you cut out? The first thing you’ve got to do is go through your book and find anything awkward. It’s not going to get any better. You can’t keep reading because you love your book. I know you love it! You wrote it! the very first thing you have to do is highlight awkward passages and add a comment: “Awkward.” This is your to-do note telling you to fix it or cut it.
Repeated words. By now, you’ve discovered a thesaurus. I’ll bet you a stack of pancakes there’s one in your text, too. “He ran in pursuit” can be cut to… “He pursued…” or even… “he ran”. This is what we call a “Shakes your head”. Of course you shake your head no! What else do you shake to mean no?
Echoes. “He parked his car…” is echoing “parked” and “Car”. Find echoes and cut.
Superfluous words. “Just” is often a superfluous word. Find every instance of that word. I’ll bet 80% of them can be cut. I know I spent over two days hunting for – and cutting – several hundred words just by searching for “just” and cutting almost every one of them! Other words to examine – Really, So, Now, Quite and Sometimes.
Dialogue tags. You can write an entire book with “…said”. Said, Shouted, whispered. All the “–ly” words are superfluous! Angrily, happily, etc. When you read, ‘“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Jimmy shouted angrily’, believe it or not, most readers read the dialog, the name of the character, and skip to the next line. “Leave me alone!” Jimmy shouted is explanatory of itself. You’ve got to put “said” in some kind of fashion, but to say “Expounded” is getting pretentious.
Unnecessary scenes. I literally wrote, in my first draft, one scene three times. I don’t know why. I know it was pivotal. I had to get information in there. I cut the other two. Another two scenes probably are unnecessary. I can reduce my “buying the truck” scene to a simple line of dialog already in the script! Chop that scene. “Buying the boat” can be cut in half, because the crucial dialog in there is repeated elsewhere.
Conclusion
It’s far too easy to write a book that’s 195,000 words. I do it all the time, alas. But until you get published, the 195,000 word tome is going to do nothing but get you rejected. Start editing your book, fix it, make it good, reduce the clutter.
You’ll be surprised how strong your writing gets all of a sudden!
