I’m still working hard to remove words. So far I don’t think I’ve done much damage to the story, though it might read a better with some more description and details. At some point, I’ll have to delete some scenes that I think will hurt the story, those will be some painful cuts. Now I’ve …
Category Archives: Writing
More Making Less
I just cut out a mighty chunk of 3,000 words. I think it takes away from the story some, but sacrifices will have to be made to get my word count down. The reason I’m going through the effort is twofold. First, it’s good to go through and remove whatever seems unneeded. Maybe it’s a …
Making Progress in Reverse
I’ve been slowly losing words. Right now I’m about 10,000 down from what I call version 1.5. In the process I’ve removed five chapters completely. I still need to lose 23,000 words from what’s left to hit my goal of 120,000 words. Getting down to 115,000 would be ideal, but getting rid of 33,000 words …
Adverbs
Adverbs are bad. That’s a common message in writing advice and there’s nothing like actually doing some writing to see the logic behind that message. You can’t eliminate adverbs entirely, they do serve a purpose, but I think of them as hints that maybe this a place where the writing can be strengthened. There are …
Plot, Detail, and Word Count
147k words and counting . . . backwards. Right now I’m trying to squeeze as many words as I can out of “The Dead Mountain”. Partly, that’s because the longer a book is, the harder it’ll be to get published. However, it also makes for a better book period. I can see the flow improving …
Stating the Obvious
This is a kind of cut that I’m finding, and one I’m glad to get rid of. Aimee twisted around, surveying the field for the little boy. She didn’t see him anywhere. “Where’d he go?” The problem here is that the I’m stating the obvious. The action and the dialogue indicate that Aimee can’t see …
More Editing
Moving on with the paragraph, the next two sentences got combined into one. Gnarled branches looked like broken fingers reaching for the sky. The sight gave Aimee the uneasy feeling that the trees were writhing in pain. First, I got rid of “looked like” because it’s weak, I removed “reaching for the sky” because I …
Nitpicking, Post 100
For my 100th post, I’m going to go over some editing. Woo Hoo! The first sentences of my changes in Post 99 went like this: “It’s so beautiful.” Aimee managed to tear her gaze away from the sight. My first change was to get rid of the word “beautiful”. That reason requires context, I had …
A Snip Here and a Snip There
I’m working on cutting for the most part right now. Turning paragraphs like this: “It’s so beautiful.” Aimee managed to tear her gaze away from the sight. For the first time, she really noticed the trees around them. The trunks looked as though some giant hand had twisted them horribly, as if trying to wring …
Characters
I have read that a writer should describe a character in detail to make a vivid image in the reader’s mind, and I have also read to keep descriptions to a bare minimum because the reader will fill in the details in their mind. Probably both can work, but I think I’d rather trust to …