After carefully weaving my words and sentences into the final draft of a manuscript, cutting words away was the last thing I wanted to do! However, that’s exactly what my editor requested in my latest manuscript.
What?!
So, how did I cut 3,886 words? Well, after I freaked out (because that was a given), I settled into the art of tightening my story.
To prepare, I googled the words “tricks to cutting words from a draft” and found multiple tips…far too many intriguing articles to site here…just google the words above and you will find numerous suggestions about how to tighten your manuscript, for example focusing on too many subtopics and curbing passive voice. I also learned ideas about using the Control F keys to find words such as…that, only, just, very, suddenly, and all the -ly words (adverbs) that bog down any story, and so much more!
So much more!
Additionally, I read somewhere that if you delete ten words from every page in a 300-page book, that’s 3,000 words! I cannot remember exactly where I heard that, my apologies to the creator, but wow, the math makes sense (and it works)! Taking a few words off each page is less intimidating than cutting an entire scene!
Finally, I took a class through The Wild Rose Press with editor, Eilidh MacKenzie (who coincidentally happens to be my editor), and I learned even more specific and helpful tips! She mentioned pet peeves among editors such as wordy phrases, overuse of prepositions, stage directions, filtering, buried verbs, redundancy, and more! You can literally search all of these ideas find helpful articles on what they are and how they hurt your writing.
Taking the time to add this step into any editing and revising repertoire would be worthwhile practice. I know I will continue to review with the focus of word cutting at the very end of my writing process to improve my manuscript’s readability. In fact, I’ll probably be thinking about minimizing my draft all the way through! Cutting massive amounts of words doesn’t spoil the message, it makes the story stronger, tighter, and better! What a way to clarify and beautify at the same time.
I hope you google some of those articles and try a little word chopping yourself! You won’t be sorry!
Happy Writing!
Celaine Charles, October 10, 2024
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Categories: fiction, Thoughts on writing...
Tags: #amediting, #amrevising, #amwritingyafantasy, #authorlife, #celainecharlesauthor, #fictionwriting, #keepwriting, #multigenreauthor, #stepsinbetween, #tipsandtricks, #wordcutting, #writing, #writingadvice, #writingcommunity, #writinglife, #writingprocess, #writingtips, #yafantasy
Steps In Between 
Way to go, Shar!! Nice work.
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Thank you! It’s been a wild ride!
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