Is your WIP too long? 75K for a Middle-Grade book. 90K for a young adult (YA). 350K for an adult book? Even though every word is precious to you, and you can’t live without writing them all, the extra words are something your readers can live without. They will never know they are missing.
My mother, Delores Beckman, was a writer. The Boy in the Wings was an adult book of about 300K words. She decided to make it a YA book and cut 75K words. (There are reasons for genre Word Count numbers.) She sent it to her agent, who sent it to Ann Durell at Dutton, and they liked the book—but not at 225K. Mom fussed, argued, revised, rewrote, and generally made herself miserable. She sold the book (re-branded as Who Loves Sam Grant?), and it appeared in hardcover and paperback. Mom got many letters from readers, but no one ever asked, “Why is Who Loves Sam Grant? so short?” No one missed any of it.
Well, I did. There were great scenes cut. The original title was so literary. But the readers will never know.
How to Cut
My CP, Abigail Silver says, “If it is not moving the plot forward, cut it.” Of course, Abby isn’t the first one to say this, but Abby gets after me: “Tighten this” and “These three chapters could be one chapter!” So, if a scene is dear to you, but does not develop or move the plot, cut it.
From my CP, Harlow Kelly cut the useless words. To best understand what Harlow means, take a look at “Harlows List of Useless Words.” Believe me, other than blushing when you realize how many times you used a useless word, it won’t be missed. And your sentences will be stronger. This knocked 2000 words out of my current Work in Progress.
Now we get to the hard part—cutting the places that you can’t live without. You may even believe that the story can’t live without these gems. The first place to look is bird walking—that going sideways on a telephone wire. Are there places where the plot takes a side road? A hint may be that your characters are saying something you have always wanted to say! Is that truth something that you must say? If that extra clever bit of commentary is something you must say, perhaps work it into your next book.
Soapboxing is closely related to gems. Sometimes we are angry, or frustrated, or just plain grumpy about an injustice. This could be especially true if the injustice was at your expense. Hopefully, every book deals with some injustice, prejudice, or meanness, but make a list of the times you bring this in front of the reader. There is a fine line between making a subtle commentary and being preachy. You may want to look at earlier blogs, “Less is more” and “Over Telling.”
As your book achieves its target length, look it over for backstory. There is a blog about backstory: The Shortest Backstory, in which I show Betsy Byars telling a main character’s lifetime in a single sentence. In that blog, I remind writers that backstory is for the author, not the reader. If the plot cannot live without a lengthy backstory, perhaps your book begins at the wrong point in time. Look over that four-page backstory and choose five sentences that the book can’t live without. Salt them in when they fit naturally.
Good luck with your writing.
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