Saturday, January 19, 2013

Deleted Pages


I decided to scrap 1½ chapters from my current work, a mashup of The War of the Worlds.  The writing was pretty good, but not great. 


This is the part of the story where I departed from my outline.  I knew it at the time, but my writing was flowing, so I decided to go with it.  But one of the main characters was becoming unsympathetic, and the images in my mind from the outline kept bugging me.  No great lessons here; sometimes the outline has to be shrugged off, sometimes it’s better to stay with it. 

This reminds me of my hearing the lovely E.J. Swift say she cut 40,000 words from one of her manuscripts.  
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3 comments:

  1. Michael Offutt, Phantom ReaderJanuary 19, 2013 at 10:03 AM

    I've cut more than 40,000 words from my first book. I cut something like 60,000 words. Then in my sequel, I cut something like 40K. Lots of rewriting. That's what happens when you work with editors and beta readers.

    It truly can be said that by the time your story makes it to publication, you will be sick of it.

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  2. JessJanuary 20, 2013 at 3:21 PM

    Cutting can be so hard~ good for you for being disciplined! I need to work on my ability to make cuts ~ my first drafts are usually way too long.

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  3. Ellie GarrattFebruary 1, 2013 at 7:04 AM

    Always go with your gut - if it doesn't feel right, ditch it.

    ReplyDelete