Trim, Trim, Trim Challenge: Update 2

Well, it’s the long weekend, so not a lot of editing is getting done…however, I did manage to knock 50 words off the old ms yesterday. Editing will resume in earnest on Tuesday.

Trim, Trim, Trim Challenge: Update 1

Well, my eyes are officially crossed from edits. I hope this isn’t a permanent condition.

Today I started at 102, 872 and am now down to 101, 989. At the beginning of the challenge I was at 103, 669. That means I am already down by 1680 words. Wow. And I’m about 1/7th of the way through. At this average, I could theoretically cut 11K words, simply by removing the things that go without saying, or extra description that gets in the way.

We’ll see what I have left when I get done!

“Some”

This is the next victim in my manuscript. “Some”. “Some” what? Come on, can’t I be more specific?

Here’s what I found: Beth stared at some motes of dust lingering in the air before turning back to the group behind her.

Ignoring the fact that I have that annoying ‘stared’ in there which is telling and not showing and could be left out to make the sentence so much stronger and create a deeper character point of view… “some”. “Some” motes of dust. Okay now. How does “some” add anything? It doesn’t. It just sits there dragging those motes down onto the bookshelves and coffee table.

Soooo…I am going to attack “some”. I’ve been attacking it in other places like my non-fiction manuscript where I say things like “grab some paper” or “you will need some markers”. I could say, “grab 2 sheets of paper” or “you will need markers”. Trim it up. Eliminate those words that slow down your readers. Be specific!

I’m going on ‘search’ and destroy mode. Aka: Find and replace.

Oh yeah, and I’m thinking of changing the above sentence to this: Motes of dust lingered in the air, distracting Beth. Finally she turned back to the group.

What do you think?

Redreaming the Scene Dream

I’ve been editing the first three scenes of my manuscript based on critiques that I’ve received. In fact, one scene is totally new and I really like it. However, I feel as though the first scene will never be quite right. And the now-third scene is puke-a-rific. I am still not satisfied with it. I think I’m going to have to delete it and rewrite it completely. It’s got some good stuff going on, but there is something not quite right–maybe it is the setting. Redream the dream, right Mr. Frey?

Anyway with some of it, I like the pared down, simplified version. But in some ways, it kills me to slice out bits that I really liked or that my crit partner said was funny. I want funny to stay, but it isn’t helping move the story forward. I am so emotionally committed to some of these descriptions or backstory bits that I don’t want to give them up. But I must. It is for the good of the whole. My god, it sounds like I’m operating on cancer or making war-like sacrifices.

So I am redreaming the dream and hopefully I can make the voice stronger, keep the story unique, move the plot forward in a smoother manner and keep my story standing above the others. 

Re-Dream the Dream in Edits

I’m still working my way through Frey’s book, “How to Write a Damn Good Novel II”.

Today, I read about the ‘deadly mistake’ of the failure to learn how to re-dream the dream. Contrary to your likely assumption that this has something to do with goals or career aspirations in writers, it is actually about editing. Basically, Frey says that if you have a scene that needs editing or rewriting, don’t throw it out and create a new dream. Instead, sit down and re-dream the scene. Perhaps give the characters a new motivation or change up the actions of the scene somehow. Start the scene earlier. Mix it up and see what happens to the current dream. Hopefully it will be better.

For the most part, I have been doing this. However, I have not been doing it consciously. Usually my changing a scene that isn’t working results in me trimming it down–which is good to a point. What I will try to do is to consciously try to mix it up. One of my critique partners is actually pretty good at helping me with this. She drops hints on ways I could change up a scene–honestly the girl should be an editor! Sometimes I pick up her hints and make some changes. Problem is, I am a reluctant changer. Once I have a scene I tend to not want to restructure it very much. I guess, I need to re-dream the dream on a bigger scale than I have been doing.

Look out word processor, I’m re-dreaming the dream! Dear lord, what if I have to re-dream the whole friggin’ book? Yikes!