That Sounds Familiar: Cut Often-Used Words in Your Writing

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

It takes a lot of work to write well, and sometimes we go for what's easiest instead of what's original. 

During the drafting stage of a manuscript, some phrases and combinations of words tend to roll off our fingers and into our stories because they're easy. These phrases aren’t clichés, per se, but they’ve been used so often by enough writers that they carry the same feeling as a cliché when readers read them.

• Beamed a smile
• Cacophony of sound
• Shrugged a shoulder
• Hair flowed down her back
• Any kind of glow from any kind of light
• Releasing a breath you didn't realize you were holding

They also tend to sound “right” to us, and that's the problem. 

We automatically use them without thinking, and that robs us of the chance to write something unique to our voice and style.

3 “Easy” Steps for Cutting Words from Your Manuscript

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Deleting words from your novel is easier than you think.

Before I dive in, I'm guest posting at Writers in the Storm this week, with  A Handy Trick for Brainstorming Your Plot. Come on over and say hello!

Getting rid of thousands of words from your manuscript is daunting. Having to cut tens of thousands of words can make you want to curl up in a ball and cry.

But trimming down a novel doesn’t have to be a huge hack and slash deal. You don’t have to rip your baby to shreds and gut the wonderful words that make the story shine. In fact, throwing away entire scenes often hurts more than helps, because you’re killing the story, not the extra words bogging that story down.

You want to get rid of the words that aren’t helping the story.

Tighten Your Novel with a Preposition Patrol

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A tighter novel helps keeps readers engaged in the story.

When I first started writing, my novels were long. Like, seriously long. This isn’t unusual for a new writer, and like countless ones before me, I set out to learn how to trim some of those excess words from my manuscript.

One of the things I discovered was the, “words you don’t always need” advice. On that list was “cut prepositions.”

I’d learned enough about writing at that point to know you shouldn’t heed advice without understanding the reasoning behind it, so I sat down and studied why prepositions and prepositional phrases were so awful.

What I found was—they aren’t.

Get Over Overstating: Trimming Unnecessary Words in Your Manuscript

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

There are plenty of ways to cut words from your manuscript. If you know where to look.

Often, when we tinker with our manuscripts we repeat ourselves. Sometimes this is good, as it reinforces critical elements of the story, but sometimes it just bloats the story and adds extra words. Here are some tips on finding--and eliminating--those unnecessary words in your own work.

Words That Tell Readers Everything

A common unnecessary word or phrase is one that states something the reader can clearly figure out from the text. Trimming it can tighten the prose and make it read more smoothly.

I darted to the window [and peeked out.] Enzie was running down the walk, waving her arms above her head and yelling.

It's clear that the narrator here looks out the window after she darts to it because she tells you what she sees. Leaving in "and peeked out" won't hurt the story, but the goal is to start picking up the pace in this scene since something bad is about to happen. Having a shorter sentence achieves that.

Sorry, Your Services are no Longer Required: Eliminating Characters from Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes another look at things to do when you have to cut a character from your novel.

It's not uncommon for the number of characters in a novel to grow as we write that novel. We discover scenes that need extra hands, or a walk-on role turns out to be a fantastic secondary character and gets more page time. Or we're writing a series, and after a few books, we realize the cast list has become unmanageable.

I ran into this while writing the third book in my fantasy trilogy, Darkfall. I had the main characters, the major supporting characters, old characters from book one, added characters from book two, and then all the new characters for book three. Suddenly, the scenes were all way too crowded.

I needed to do a little character pruning, but who got to stay and who had to go?

Lighten Up! Cutting Down Your Word Count

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week’s Refresher Fridays takes an updated another look and how to trim words from a novel. Enjoy!

Eliminating words from a manuscript is a common headache (and heartache) for a lot of writers, but it doesn’t have to be. You don't have to rip your baby to shreds. In fact, hacking away whole scenes often hurts the novel more than helps, because you're killing the story, not the extra words. It’s often better for you and the manuscript to get rid of the words that aren't helping your story—or if you really need to cut, the words you can live without.

It can be daunting though. Hearing "cut 10,000 words from your novel" can make you want to curl up in a ball. But let's look at what that really means...

How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-40% – and tighten your story without losing any of the good stuff!

By Jodie Renner, editor, author, speaker

Part of the Indie Author Series

Have you been told your story looks promising or even intriguing, but your novel is way too long? Are you cringing at the potential cost of getting your long manuscript edited?

Today’s readers have shorter attention spans and smaller reading devices, so sales are increasing for shorter fiction. Also, freelance editors charge by the word, page, or hour, so of course you’ll be paying a lot more to have your longer manuscript edited – especially if it’s rambling and needs a lot of tightening, so a lot of editing input.

Slash and Burn: Cutting Words From Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

I'm fortunate that cutting words from a draft has never been hard for me. It might hurt to cut favorite lines or scenes, but I know in the end it makes for a better book, and that's the ultimate goal--to write the best book I can.

I cut 20K words of my second novel (Blue Fire) right after the first round of critiques, because a subplot didn't work at all. That got rid of a character, so I had to get rid of everything in which this character was mentioned, or actions relating to what this character had wanted my protagonist to do. Then there were scenes that didn't work anymore, because the entire middle changed. That was probably another 10K words.

Knowing What to Cut in Your Manuscript

By Marcia Wells, @WellsMarcia

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Dealing with a too-large or unwieldy manuscript can be frustrating at times, or even disheartening if you're not sure how to cut it down to manageable size. Please help me welcome Marcia Wells, who's here today to share some tips on trimming down your manuscript.

Marcia is the author of EDDIE RED UNDERCOVER, a new MG mystery series from Houghton Mifflin. The first book in the series, MYSTERY ON MUSEUM MILE, is coming out April 1, 2014.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound

Take it away Marcia...

The Eyes Have it: Are You "Over Looking" Things in Your Manuscript?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Our characters do a lot of looking in our stories. It's their job to describe what the world looks like, what people look like, what's going on and who's doing what. But are we overlooking the amount of times we use the word look?

I bet if you did a find for how many times look is used in a manuscript the number would be high, especially in an early draft. Same with saw, gaze, and even eyes. Eyes typically get quite the workout.

It makes sense since seeing is our primary sense for gathering information, but when you think about it, everything a character conveys to the reader is something they experienced. If they describe what it looks like, we know they looked at it.

Break it Down: Trimming Words From a Too-Long Manuscript

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Cutting down a large manuscript can be a challenge, and one most writers would like to avoid. Even if you write sparse, odds are you'll face this at some point in your career. I've done several posts on trimming words, but what do you do if you need to cut large amounts of text? Tens of thousands of words instead of a few thousand.

This happened to me recently. My first draft was done, and way too large. During revisions I changed the plot a lot and it got even bigger. My first act was clocking in at 34K words, which meant my novel was going to likely end up about 140K words--about 50K more than it should be. Since I was aiming for the 80-90K word mark, I knew I had to get that first act down to around 20-23K words. Even 25K would be acceptable, as I could trim the rest after I was done.

A Journey Through Massive Edits In Ten Easy Steps

By Paul Welch

JH: I'm excited about today's post. A few months ago, Paul Welch wrote me to say thanks for some of my revision posts. He had a huge novel to cut down and my advice helped a lot (which totally made my day). We got to chatting and he told me his amazing story and what he did to turn a massive novel into something he could submit. I was so inspired by his tale, I asked him to guest post and share it with you guys.

Paul is an award-winning professional actor, writer and voice, speech and text specialist living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is currently seeking representation for his first epic fantasy, IN THE SHADOWS OF THE DAWN. It is the first in a proposed trilogy. Ironically, he had to cut over 700 words from this blog post.

This story is for everyone who says they can't cut that novel. It can be done, and Paul is proof of that.

Take it away Paul...

Word Count to the Wise: Handling Your Word Count

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

How long is too long? What's the average length of a YA book? A romance novel? A thriller? Can you go over (or under) and still sell your book? What if you have to cut words?

First, let's look at some of the basics: 

A quick note first...these are general ranges not hard and fast rules. There are plenty of novels that fall outside these ranges. If your novel is one of them, don't panic. There's wiggle room, but be smart about it.