Cutting Till It Hurts
So far, most of my revisions consist of cutting. I'm pretty good about doing this. I write long, and I'm used to it. There hasn't been a book I've written yet where I haven't cut a fair amount of pages out of it. Last night, though, I made a cut that had a little whimper escape.
I'd already gone through chapter one, saw it, knew it was unnecessary, but I liked it. A lot. I decided I'd leave it in. After all, I'd already cut 10% of the chapter, surely I could keep a few paragraphs just for me?
I guess not since one of my critique partners got back to me immediately and said my changes were good, but I should cut this one section. :-( I knew she was right, but I still fought the need to do it. I worked on chapter 2, cut one of the scenes there up pretty good. Had no trouble doing that at all, although I'm not sure if I cut enough. I need to reread it.
Finally, last night, I opened chapter 1, scrolled to that spot, highlighted it and hit the delete key. I smoothed the transition between the dialogue, and what I cut won't be missed at all. Except by me. I still like it. But it isn't really necessary. And it does slow down the scene with needless internal monologue. So it's gone. I know there's one spot a couple of chapters later that ties into the phrasing of something Kendall thinks in that scene, so I'll have to adjust that, but that's about the only impact its absence has.
Writing is not for sissies. ;-)
I'd already gone through chapter one, saw it, knew it was unnecessary, but I liked it. A lot. I decided I'd leave it in. After all, I'd already cut 10% of the chapter, surely I could keep a few paragraphs just for me?
I guess not since one of my critique partners got back to me immediately and said my changes were good, but I should cut this one section. :-( I knew she was right, but I still fought the need to do it. I worked on chapter 2, cut one of the scenes there up pretty good. Had no trouble doing that at all, although I'm not sure if I cut enough. I need to reread it.
Finally, last night, I opened chapter 1, scrolled to that spot, highlighted it and hit the delete key. I smoothed the transition between the dialogue, and what I cut won't be missed at all. Except by me. I still like it. But it isn't really necessary. And it does slow down the scene with needless internal monologue. So it's gone. I know there's one spot a couple of chapters later that ties into the phrasing of something Kendall thinks in that scene, so I'll have to adjust that, but that's about the only impact its absence has.
Writing is not for sissies. ;-)
posted by Patti O'Shea at 4:34 AM
You are a brave, brave writer. Back in my journalism days, I remember a writing coach telling my newsroom to do just what you did -- "Kill your babies."
It's a riveting phrase, isn't it? You've brought these little darlings out of thin air. He sympathized with how much we loved our own doomed words and said that, if we absolutely HAD to, we could save a copy of the work in its original form so the little darlings would have an afterlife. (After all, some college somewhere is going to want to archive your papers, right? *sigh*)
I found it to be a pretty liberating philosophy since I'm so VERY long-winded. "Kill your babies." I always meant to cross-stitch that and put it up at my cubicle, but I didn't want to answer questions from shocked onlookers. ;o)
Best rgds,
Carolyn B.
Carolyn,
You worked as a journalist? I graduated from J School, but never used my degree.
That is a very riveting phrase, almost startling. But that is how we feel about our words and sentences. Most of the time, I'm good about cutting, it's just now and then that it gets hard. The thing is that no one (except me) will miss what I cut, so yeah, it did have to go.
Oh, yeah, putting that phrase up in your cube would have a regular parade of people asking about it. And the ones that didn't ask about it would be talking about it in appalled tones. Gotta love the workplace. :-/
Patti
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