Pain-Free Guide to Slashing Your Word Count

In the before days (several months ago), I had a very specific and painful process for cutting words, sentences, scenes, and chapters from my books:

1. Procure chainsaw.
2. Slice off limbs.

It wasn’t the kind of approach to cutting I wanted to use long term. Mostly because I only have four limbs.

Fact is, cutting a manuscript hurts. After days and weeks and months of writing a story, the last thing you want to do is trash words. It feels wasteful. There are writers in the world starving for words, and there you go throwing yours out.

During my last round of revisions, I had a breakthrough. I’ve actually been holding onto this gem of a tip for months because I kept forgetting to post it I had really important things to do and stuff.

So here it is—four pain-free* steps to cutting your word count:

1. Print your manuscript.

After reading my book so many times on screen, doing a full read on paper is super helpful.

2. As you read, strike out words, sentences, paragraphs, even full scenes and chapters to cut.

Do not freak out. You’re simply scribbling out ink on paper. Your manuscript is still safe and sound—and in its original, lengthy glory—on your computer. Later, you can veto any marks you make, so go wild.

3. When you’re done editing on paper, open your digital file and highlight all of the sections you marked to cut.

Forget about all of your other edits. Simply go page by page through your printed manuscript and, whenever you’ve marked a word or passage to be cut, highlight it in the file.

I use Scrivener, so at this stage I simply highlighted words or chunks of text bright yellow, as noted on my printed page. I didn’t stop to think about whether I wanted to cut that text. It’s a very fast transfer from paper to Scrivener file.

4. Revise.

Now it’s time to revise as you typically would. I should point out that, at this point in my revision, I was completely unaware I was a genius. I feel very humble pointing that out.

Here’s what happened: Whenever I got to a word or section highlighted yellow, I knew I had two choices: cut or keep. Except in my mind, I’d already let those words go—twice. And so cutting wasn’t punch-to-the heart terrible like it was in the past.

It’s sort of like telling your brain to be prepared because some time real soon you’ll be getting rid of words and scenes and it better not put up a fight. And then telling it again. By the time you get around to cutting those words and scenes, your brain will be like YES, THANK YOU, I GET IT—NOW STOP.

Alright, lay it on me: What’s your best writing or revising trick?

*Results may vary.

My Current Revision Process as Illustrated by Jennifer Lawrence Gifs

Yes, I really spent the time to write this post.

It’s just that I was going to use my What’s Up Wednesday* post to explain what the past few days of work on my book have been like when I had a sudden realization: Anything I say Jennifer Lawrence can say better. And she’s more adorable. So here, courtesy of an addictive Tumblr blog dedicated to Jennifer Lawrence gifs, I give you my current stage of the revision process:

The bones of my first draft have been written. Now I need to fill in some extra scenes. Glad I have an entire list of ideas.

Maybe interesting isn’t the right world. It’s more like fantastic. Okay, reality check:

All is going well until...PLOT HOLE.

I’ll tell you what I do: Get to work.

Right. Well, there’s always tomorrow. In fact, just as I’m nestling under my covers I have a brilliant idea. I’ll write it all down tomorrow.

Which begs the question: Why was I too lazy to find a pen and paper and make a note?!

You know what, I can work through this. I will fill that plot hole like... like... like a filler of things who fills things. I need a nap.

Three hours later...

Six hours later...

Okay, I need to approach this differently.

That’s right, you ridiculous plot hole, YOU WILL NOT WIN!

Besides, even if this book’s a bust, I still get to have fun working on it.

What’s up with you?

*If Jennifer Lawrence hasn’t distracted you too much, you’ll see I’m missing a few key elements of What’s Up Wednesday. So here, like a chunky footnote you dread to read, is my update. What I’m Reading: I felt like a quick mystery, so I bought Kat Carlton’s Two Lies and a Spy on a whim. It reminded me a lot of Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls spy series, and I’m interested to see where this series goes from here. It’s a light, fun read. What’s Inspiring Me: This oldie but goodie from Veronica Rossi at the YA Muses blog about finding your character’s root need.

RTW: How I Revise

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic.

This Week's Topic is: For many, December is a post-NaNoWriMo revision haze! How do you approach revising? Any tips or tricks or resources you can share?

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I hate revisions. (Remember that time I so artistically illustrated how I feel about them? Still do.) 

It’s not that I don’t love what they do for my book (that is, make it infinitely better than it was before). And it’s not that I’m necessarily terrible at revising. But revising is hard. I mean, 2,786 divided by 9,087 in your head kind of hard. (And if that’s not hard for you, have you considered taking a stab at time travel?)

Most of the time I stare at my story knowing what to do to make it better but not understanding how I’ll ever be able to accomplish that. My solution: Start big, work in batches, and take breaks between revisions.

There’s a good chance I’ll blog in more detail about my revision process in the future,* so for now, here’s the abridged version:

1. Read it. After taking some time off, I’ll go back and read the whole book, making notes as I go but not spending too much time on it. Mostly I want to get a feel for the book as a whole, as a reader would see it.

2. Tackle the big issues. There’s no point in doing line edits until larger revisions are done since chunks may be cut. So I first spend time on the biggies: pacing, plot, character development, setting, yada yada yada.

3. Brainstorm. Because fixes for big-picture problems never reveal themselves to me in dreams and/or drug-induced stupors, I need to brainstorm how I’ll spin my crap of a story into gold. Or at least steel with a believable gold paint job.

4. Revise in sections. When I consider revising an entire manuscript I get the sudden urge to hurl myself off of a tall building. Hence my love for working in small batches. I work my way through the problems from those that will create the most changes throughout to the one that will create the least. Scrivener is great for this because I can add all of my notes in the sidebar then create a document full of the big problems I’ll need to fix. I can keep my list of issues or my brainstormed list of fixes in one window while I revise in the other. 

5. Start big, end small. Once I’ve finished revising based on big-picture issues (synonym: rewriting), I’ll take on smaller problems that may be specific to a scene or chapter. Here still, I’ll work in small batches, tackling one chapter at a time. It makes a huge set of revision notes seem much more manageable. And it makes leaping from tall buildings in a single bound sound less tempting.

6. Lather, rinse, repeat. You know, until my manuscript is looking as shiny as Pantene-commercial hair. Eventually, once the story is in good shape, I’ll tackle line edits. 

What are your revision tips?

*Some time before 2015, definitely. 

8 Tips for Better Self-Editing

Since I’ve been wading in the Sea of Revisions, I thought I’d share some of my editing tips. We all edit differently and I always find it interesting to hear how others do it. I thought you might, too. (Don’t tell me if I’m wrong.)

1. Read the manuscript aloud. I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but for me it’s critical. That’s how I determine if the rhythm of the sentences or paragraphs is off. It’s also how I catch stupid typos when Microsoft Word lets me down. (I mean, are and our aren’t replaceable—even if they’re both spelled correctly.)

2. Take time away. Like a good rebound relationship, revisions work best after you’ve taken some time away from the game. There’s a 500 percent chance that a couple weeks or more away from your manuscript will make you a better editor. Also, that comprehensive critique will seem a lot less critical and much more helpful after you’ve digested everything.

3. Highlight all of the verbs. This will be tedious. I promise. But your work will be stronger for it. Take out that pretty yellow highlighter and mark up each and every verb. When you go back and review the highlights, look for any weak verbs and replace with stronger ones. Also check for verb-adverb constructions and change them to stronger verbs.

4. Circle all metaphors and similes. Check to make sure you’re using the correct metaphor or simile for your character. A character who spends his summers mowing laws would probably describe freshly mowed grass differently than someone who grew up in the city.

5. Cut any scene that isn’t furthering the plot, character arc or, better yet, both. You can preserve the BEST WRITING YOU’VE EVER DONE by copying and pasting it into a new document. Tell yourself you’ll add it back. Then read the scenes and pat yourself on the back for how much better the story sounds.

6. Make a pass for every character. Listen, each character should act as if they’re the main character of the story. Because to them, they are. In a story about me, the mechanic who works on my car is a side character. But I’m a side character in his story, too. Everyone is the main character of their own story.

7. Check for character voice. Paste a chunk of dialog into a new document. Remove the dialog tags. Can you tell the difference between characters from the dialog? Everyone speaks differently, and so should your characters. Make sure yours don’t all sound like the narrator.

8. Do a pass for first and lasts. Make sure the beginning and end of each chapter and scene stand out. These can get overlooked, but they should be handled with just as much care as you do the first and last line of the book.

That’s all for now. What are your self-editing tips?

Trust Yourself

Speaking of revisions…

So I’m revising my WIP, which has been a lesson in inconsistency. The first day I touched it, I edited chapters one through four. I hit chapter ten before I took some time off to move and unpack.

When I returned, my WIP had become this huge, insurmountable task. In my spare moments I’d open it, remember how much work I had to do, and shut it again.

(Note: This is not a useful process if the goal is to finish revisions some time before the 2012 Apocalypse.*)

I’d revise on weekends when I had a full day to think about just how awful my story was. And then I’d finish a section and decide this was going to be worse than crap. I’d dive into a book to relax, which would only leave me thinking that there was, in fact, no way I could turn my story into something even remotely as good as the book I just read.**

I’d been a while since I opened the document—maybe a week and a half—when I started revising on Saturday afternoon. By Sunday night, when I finished, I had revised one chapter and rewritten five.

Also, my shoulders hurt.

A complete lack of faith in my ability as a writer and storyteller was behind my hesitation to jump in. Because when I re-read those chapters, they were good. Not perfect, of course, but good. What I thought I’d never figure out, I did. And it works in the story.

We all revise differently, but here’s what I took away from my weekend of marathon revisions:

1.     Find a computer.

2.     Pull up a chair.

3.     Open your manuscript.

4.     It’s not that bad.

5.     You’re going to make it better.

6.     Stop your whining.

7.     Write.

No matter how much the blank page or revision notes make you want to quit and take up coal mining, you will figure it out. So stop stalling. Open and write.

 

*Or the zombie Apocalypse. Whichever comes first.

**Curse you John Green and Melina Marchetta!

The 9 Phases of Revising

Revising a manuscript is like being an old, rickety rollercoaster with no brakes and zombies climbing over the back cars to get to you while the ride plunges to the earth. Sometimes, like at the top of the ride, before you knew about the zombies or the brakes, you’re like, “This is pretty nice.” But then you look closer and realize there’s not thing nice about it.

When the excitement of finishing a first draft wears off, revising goes in stages*:

This is terrible. 

Did I really write something so terrible?

But maybe if I— Aha! I know how to fix it.

This is going to be so easy!

Sleep? What is that? What day is it?

WTF?

I hate this manuscript.

I wish you would just fall of a cliff AND DIE! And bleed to death slowly like the piece of crap you are!!!

I’m finished! I love you I love you I love you I LOVE YOU!!

*I'm at stage 5 right now...

First Draft Bloopers

The thing I most love about writing a first draft is being able to run with a story. It’s like watching a movie for me. Sort of. I know where I’m headed and I know the major stops along the way, but the rest? Totally unexpected.

Because of this, I write fast. It took me a while to learn this, but now I mostly write without self-editing. Sure, I might go back and review yesterday’s work to get back in the story, but as I’m writing I won’t stop to rework a sentence 34 times.

But this type of writing can lead to some discrepancies. Like this gem, which The Man found while reading:

Act 1: main character has no boobs

Act 2: main character has boobs

Act 3: main character has no boobs

I can only guess that my main character got a boob job, didn’t like it, and got a reduction. But isn’t that backstory?

And to answer your question: Yes, I’m worried that my husband is paying attention to my main character’s chest size.

When You're Stuck

It’s easy to wander. It’s important to weigh your options:

Twitter or blank page?

Facebook or blank page?

Blogs or blank page?

YouTube* or blank page?

This is where my mind goes when I’m stuck:

Real helpful, brain. Real helpful.

*Dear, Suzie Townsend, thank you thank you thank you for posting about this channel.

This Is What Happens During Revisions

The poor Man. When I told him I wanted to write a novel, he was enthusiastic. (OK, enthusiastic and misguided. He thought it was a great idea because J.K. Rowling and that Twilight woman make boatloads. Sigh.)

Anyhow, I warned him that I’d be at the computer more.

I said that I might spend the hours after dinner with my story.

I might have left out the part where I randomly tune out of conversations while pursuing ides.

I think I forgot to explain what revisions are.

I absolutely didn’t tell him he’d be a widower.

My bad.

What do you give up to write?

Safe Haven

There are certain words that should not be used together. (No I’m not talking about “we’re out of bread pudding,” though those words most definitely should not be used together.)

I’m talking about words that don’t make sense if you speak English. Which I do.

When I was in journalism school, I took a copyediting class that changed the way I wrote. And it also changed how I edited, which I think made me a more thorough yet less likeable editor.

Anyhow. Two words were nails on the chalkboard to my professor and are now nails on the chalkboard to me: safe haven.

I cringe at the mention of a safe haven. I want to scribble all over the word safe whenever I read the phrase. I want to scream, “A HAVEN IS A SAFE PLACE!” at the top of my lungs.

Sure, this sounds ah-mazing: It was her safe haven.

But what you’re really saying is this: It was her safe safe place.

Even Word, which never fails to underline grammatically correct phrases with its annoying squiggles, knows this is wrong.

So for the love of everything haven-like, drop the safe. Or change it to safe place.

The final end.

The In Between

The first draft is done. Those words flew out my brain almost faster than I can type. (Almost. I’m a speedy typist.) And now…

… I wait.

… I congratulate myself.

… I tell my sister.

… I tell The Man.

… we do a happy dance.

… I eat an extra dessert.

… I decide that one scene needs to be longer.

… and the scene where you-know-who does you-know-what needs to go.

… I realize there are a lot of blanks I’m going to need to fill in.

… I understand that my love interest is boring.

… and I need to give him more of a personality.

… if I bother editing.

… this sucks.

Right. So I’m going through the in-between moment where I’m staying away from my WIP for several weeks. Yet it’s constantly in my head, which is annoying at times. (Like when someone’s trying to have a real conversation with me and that someone expects a response.) It’s at this time that the self-doubt sets in.

Maybe it’s horrible. Maybe it’s boring. Maybe it’s the most horrible and most boring novel EVER WRITTEN!!!! (Yes, that’s a four exclamation point kind of emotion.) Then I realize that 1) Walden is the most boring book ever written and I’m sorry if you love Henry David Thoreau, but it’s a fact. And 2) I must write better than a celebrity (coughcoughSnookicoughcough) and I feel better.

And then my sister says she loves it. And I feel a lot better. Even if it’s just my sister.

I will edit this. I will right the wrongs. I will add and subtract and dish out personalities like Halloween candy.

What do you during your In Between? Read? Start another story? Watch bad TV? Hibernate?