Comments on: How to Cut Your Manuscript by 20%… and Love It.

By: Writers on the Web :Learn to Write Fiction

Writers on the Web :Learn to Write Fiction — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:07:24 +0000

[...] a two-part series on revising your novel from Larry at storyfix.com – How to Cut Your Manuscript by 20%… and Love It and Part 2 – How to Cut Your Manuscript by 20% or More. What great writing posts have you [...]

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:34:13 +0000

Roz — wow, are we ever on the same page. Thanks for your contribution here. Show don’t tell… but don’t show too much if it doesn’t align with the mission of the scene itself. Great scenes are mission-driven. Whatever isn’t mission-driven or at least mission-critical is the stuff we should consider cutting. Good stuff!

By: dirtywhitecandy

dirtywhitecandy — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:28:47 +0000

Great post, Larry – exactly what I’ve been explaining to people for years about honing scenes. Poch, what you basically need to do is learn to show, not tell; immerse yourself in a scene as if it was happening to you and you were showing us what you are experiencing. So rather than say ‘I was impressed when he played the guitar’, say ‘I never realised a man with such stubby fingers could make a sound so graceful, so full of expression…’ blah blah – okay it’s not Shakespeare but can you see the first example is a generalisation and the other is specific and vivid? Larry will probably tell you a lot more.
Finally, back to the original topic – I find the key to cutting is to make sure you know what each scene’s purpose is before you edit – so do a top-down summary before you plunge in with the delete key. You’ll find some scenes are effectively duplicates of others, some should be expanded etc.

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:00:52 +0000

Hi Larry,

I’ve heard this “cut down your manuscript,” stuff before. But, now that you’re saying it, I guess I have to suck it up and do it.

Humpf. (ha) Great stuff, as always…

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:45:37 +0000

Janice & Rebecca — yep, you’ll never view a film or read a book the same way again. Sort of like a doctor never feels about a check up again the way she did before med school. It’s pretty cool, actually.

Debbie — glad this helped! If he resists, just ask him if he really wants to publish or not. It’s that cut and dried.

Paul — you’re absolutely right, there is another common way to cut (believe I mentioned there are two arenas…): writing voice. Not always easy to trim what we’ve written right after we’ve done so, but later, sometimes the fat just drips off our sentences, begging to be cut.

On the other issue… there’s always exceptions, you — the artist — get to make the creative call. But as a general rule, and a safe bet, one mission per scene makes for swift pacing and clear reading. If you can make it work another way, hey, go for it. Hope your agent or editor agree. There are many ways to skin this literary cat.

By: Paul Chernoch

Paul Chernoch — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:34:19 +0000

The method you describe is not the only way to cut down a MS. I spent months tightening phrasing, removing unnecessary adjectives and adverbs and equivocations and useless phrases, tautologies and statements that the reader could easily infer. I deleted many extraneous details, places I repeated myself, etc. I was able to trim by about 15% overall. My sentences and paragraphs were leaner and more precise, but my plot was not. My sagging middle was fifty pages shorter – but still sagging. The exercise was worthwhile, but I still need to do what you recommend.

I do have one objection, however. My early scenes generally have a single point, but as my story progresses scenes start to do double and triple duty. It seems to me that the number of points that a scene makes should match the pace of the story, with the fast paced scenes having a larger number of revelations.

By: Debbie Burke

Debbie Burke — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:16:18 +0000

Larry, a dandy post! A new writer I’m working with is compelled to describe every exotic vacation destination and every extreme sport he’s ever experienced in his novel. Unfortunately, most do not have the remotest connection to his story. I have to convince him, using your blog, that while his travelogues might make great travel magazine articles, they don’t belong in his novel. Thanks for your help!

By: poch

poch — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:59:09 +0000

Great piece again Larry.
But cutting my ms fat isn’t really a problem for me.
It’s the reverse. It seems that all my stories are summaries and I get stuck with that.
How about writing about this problem?

By: Rebecca Ryals Russell

Rebecca Ryals Russell — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:06:45 +0000

Larry,
In a previous post you declared that once a person understands the story elements, every time they watch a movie, show, read a book, etc. it would be obvious.

Annoyingly, you were right. Every movie I’ve watched since reading that I’ve noticed each plot point and mid-point.

Thanks a lot. No, really. Thanks for the writing help. I know it will greatly improve my writing.

By: janice

janice — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:14:48 +0000

I challenge you to test this. Read a novel or watch a movie, and see how each scene is comprised (there will be exceptions… don’t be seduced by them) of two things: a single piece of plot-critical information – which may not seem remotely critical at the time, which is the case with foreshadowing scenes, for example – and the continuing journey of characterization.

As I’ve said before, you’re a very bad man! I bought (bargain basement) a James Patterson and a Nora Roberts for my daughter and I to test your theories on and scribble all over. We plan to count percentiles, analyse, plot and study for fun (yes, we are a weird family!) We also watched a film based on a teen novel to see how it pans out. Even if we neither of us gets published, you’ve brought something special to our sometimes hormone-fraught relationship!