My challenge is to take a 184,095 word speculative historical adventure romance (I should probably narrow that down, too) and peel away about 70,000 words so it's heart can be heard loud and clear. I've done this before, but not to this scale. I chopped 60 pages from The Orchard before it was officially accepted. That's about 15,000 words (I'm going with 250 words per page, which seems to be my average).
For Remnant, I'll have to find a way to chop 280 pages. *gulp* Oh, my poor little darlings.
I am going to go with what worked for me last time. I'm printing out an editing draft of Remnant (1.5 spaced, no page breaks, 2-sided, ink saver mode hard copy), punching holes, and slipping it into a 3-ring binder. I have red pens and a highlighter. I have my reader's notes (thanks, Rob). I will also print out this:
REVEAL THE HEARTBEAT.
That will go on the bulletin board over my desk.
Scalpel?
9 comments:
Look at it this way, you had a certain amount of words that had to be written, and you got them out and onto the page. That doesn't mean you have to save them any more than you have to save the things you vacuum up from the living room rug. They had to be written, and now you're finished with them.
Good luck with the surgery, Krista! I had to cut 100 pages from my first novel.
You know, I would love to write historical, but man. That's just way too much research! Good on ya for being able to do that!
Whew! I'm sympathizing just a teeny bit now that I completed the HUGE task of combining and revamping the blogs (I use "completed" loosely) though I don't know what it's like to have to cut little pieces off of your precious story and characters.
I'll have to remember that phrase "so it's heart can be heard loud and clear." Wonderfully said, Krista.
Good luck!
Shanda :)
Truth be told, I'm impressed you wrote that long of a work to begin with!! I'm always much too short. But happy cutting!
Ahhhhh you give me hope. Most people have trouble coming up with words. Not I. Nor you apparently. :) Good luck!!!
I've always been told it's easier to cut than add. With all that content you could use it for another wip. :)
Good luck with the surgery...hope it isn't TOO painful.
Thanks! I'll post updates on how it's going. I like the vacuum analogy, tyrca.
*snip snip*
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