Ruthless
I am driving myself nuts today.
Ruthless word cutting. That's the mode I am in. I am wielding a machete on my manuscript. After that, it will be a knife. Then the scalpel.
My character doesn't need to sit DOWN. He can simply SIT (he's not going to sit UP--unless he's a dog).
In one sentence, my main character has a "knot on the back of his head near the base of his skull." Well, the base of his skull IS on the back of his head, so there went that phrase.
What was I thinking when I used all those extra words? Well, to be honest, I was probably thinking like I talk/speak. I am not conscious of extra words then. But when I write . . . excise all the extra crap. EVERY WORD has to belong there.
I know what I am doing is important. But I am still making myself crazy. It feels so ruthless.
But ruthless writing is what writers need to do.
Anyone? What are you ruthless about in your wip?
Ruthless word cutting. That's the mode I am in. I am wielding a machete on my manuscript. After that, it will be a knife. Then the scalpel.
My character doesn't need to sit DOWN. He can simply SIT (he's not going to sit UP--unless he's a dog).
In one sentence, my main character has a "knot on the back of his head near the base of his skull." Well, the base of his skull IS on the back of his head, so there went that phrase.
What was I thinking when I used all those extra words? Well, to be honest, I was probably thinking like I talk/speak. I am not conscious of extra words then. But when I write . . . excise all the extra crap. EVERY WORD has to belong there.
I know what I am doing is important. But I am still making myself crazy. It feels so ruthless.
But ruthless writing is what writers need to do.
Anyone? What are you ruthless about in your wip?
posted by Erica Orloff at 1:50 PM
14 Comments:
I do that when I'm writing by hand. Then when I'm doing the type-in, I'll be puzzling over stuff like that.
I've been told that I'm so ruthless over dialogue tags that when I need one, it simply doesn't occur to me to use one!
And it. I'm not sure why, but I use a lot of its.
Btw, I used to post as miladyinsanity but I switched to Beta Blogger and now I can't figure out how to post as miladyinsanity any more.
Milady/May:
I could never write by hand--I have friends who do, but that would make me crazy--can't write by hand as fast as I think. But I would imagine that step would help tighten.
Dialogue tags--yeah. Hate them and it irks me to use them, though I know sometimes I need to.
E
LOL. Erica. Guess I write like I talk too. So I'll admit my family refers to me as the motor-mouth.
I've read that mostly an author can easily cut 5-10% of a ms. In some of my earlier stuff, I could go back and easily cut 50%! Maybe 75 :-0
I'm a description junkie. Where they live--what they're wearing--what they have for breakfast-- all unnecessary in the final analysis, but sometimes it helps me establish my characters and their behaviors more firmly in my mind. Once those details have served that purpose, I don't mind hacking them out...much.
lainey:
LOL: "I don't mind hacking them out . . . much."
I don't mind being ruthless most of the time--about words. But I have to confess sometimes I hate to aprt with single lines or one-liners that I think are good . . . simply because the paragraph or scene they belong to is headed for the chopping block.
E
Erica, I couldn't for a long time, but my laptop was in the shop...and so I didn't have a choice.
And I believe it was writing with a purple pen made all the difference. LOL.
I don't often hack out chunks stuff, unless it's to do with a plotline I started and dropped in the middle. I'm not a fan of description, and I've learnt to ask myself why I need this scene before moving to the next scene. So I've got a relatively clean first draft, but it takes me a long time to write one.
I'm a minimalist at heart, so I can be pretty ruthless when it comes to cutting. Once, I was reading a rather poorly-written but published mystery, and got so steamed at the verbiage I took out my red pen and went to work on it. A friend sent me a manuscript a while back and after I'd whittled the first page down to one small paragraph he said, "Well, um, gee Jude, I think I'll just keep it like it was."
Sometimes in my own work I have to be careful not to cut TOO much. Otherwise, my 75K word novel might end up being a one-page avant-garde poem. :)
I'm so concise it's not funny. I'm always looking for places to add.... so my main character would have a knot on the back of his head which was on his shoulders near the base of his skull hahahahaah
I suspect trying to add words is just as frustrating as cutting the!
May:
I tend to write fast and clean--but yes, that self-editing as I go along--it's there. Very few things end up in mine that have to get cut--that's why for me it does tend to be word-cutting. It's the years I spent as a book editor. Nothing drove me more nuts than lots of description that I didn't see the need for.
E
Jude:
My darling minimalist . . . I could have guessed that would be your response. :-)
E
Sara:
I've been asked for nearly every novel except my YAs, to add if possible. It's my ruthlessness to bare bones that does it, I suppose. I, too, have to look for spots to add from time to time, and I HATE it. In general, I would far rather add a scene than add words. Adding words will seem like sloppy writing to me; adding a scene in which I can maybe show another aspect of my character I might be OK with.
E
I have a real problem with characters looking, as in 'she looked at me and said...' In nearly every case, it's not needed.
I was asked to add on my YA - and it did make it a better book. And yes, you're so right. Adding scenes is by far the best way to go!
kathryn:
Now you are tapping into my insecurities as a writer. I use "looked" a lot!!!!!!!! ARGH!
E
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