Cut Like Crazy

Cut like crazy. Less is more. I've often read manuscripts–including my own–where I've got to the beginning of, say, chapter two and have thought: "This is where the novel should actually start." A huge amount of information about character and backstory can be conveyed through small detail. The emotional attachment you feel to a scene or a chapter will fade as you move on to other stories. Be business-like about it.

SARAH WATERS

Comments

[Nathaniel Matychuk]

I am reading Stephen King's The Body and this is my main critique. His super novel IT had the same problem; it easily could have been five hundred pages shorter.

[Annie]

Excellent point. The good news and the bad news is that writers love words. Words, words, words - just can't get enough of them. Though the real skill is in finding the right words the keep.

Annie

[brendan stallard]

I get the point of cutting, I do. My problem is, when I get to editing, the process creates even more lines of story and ideas in my head.

I've heard writers cut some 50% of the original text. Mine has frequently increased by at least a third again, and is improved, I think.

Is there a simple answer for what's going on in that process? Other than of course, the original wasn't properly written in the first place.

brendan