Unkind Cuts (Part One)

We’re going to meander a bit, so pop some corn, brew some hot chocolate, and settle back.

We’ll get where we’re going…

…eventually.

. . .

I write shaggy and loose.

I tend to over explain, pump in too much detail, write dialog too realistically (wuzzat?  You’ll see).

My novel firsts drafts typically clock in at 100-120K words.

Problem:
Traditional publishers don’t like long books, especially from new writers.*

A good sci-fi or epic fantasy novel can clock in at 120K max, past that they look at breaking it up into two or three or more volumes.

100K seems to be the upper limit for horror and historical novels.

Mainstream and other genre novels sweet spot is between 60-80K with some books -- particularly in the Young Adult market -- coming in shorter.

The first draft we’re discussing today clocked in at over 121K.

It is not a sci-fi or epic fantasy, nor is it a horror novel.

Technically it could be considered a historical novel, but it’s not about Big Sweeping Events but rather a very human scale story played out at a very human level.

Clearly some trimming is in order.

. . .

My first editing pass went fairly well, chopping out 14K words to get me down to 107K.

As I said, I write shaggy and loose.

I tightened up a lot of sentences; “She started to run” became “She ran” etc.

Got rid of “he said” / “she said” in two person dialog scenes where it’s obvious who’s saying what.

Remembered I didn’t need to spell everything out every time it appeared; the John Jacob Jingleheimer School became “her school” after the first mention.**

Does that cute turn of phrase actually help advance the story?  No?  Bye-bye.

Big blocks of text came out.

I found some fascinating information about vintage technology adjacent to my story.  Three paragraphs that contributed nothing to the plot.  Out it went.

A few scenes that didn’t actually advance the plot so much as tell how the plot advanced.  Don’t need a step by step breakdown on how a work order gets processed, just write “she got a work order.”

That was the first pass.

. . .

The second editing pass took just as long but produced fewer results.

Much more tightening of sentences.

Shortened dialog scenes.  Back and forth dialog could frequently get shortened by removing two or three lines from the middle.

Lost three or four scenes that I really liked, that showed how the characters related to one another, explained what they felt as they faced their problems…

…but ultimately got covered by another scene later on.

I really liked those scenes, but they could go without damaging the story.

Wrapped up my second pass at exactly 100,070 words.

=grrrrr=

. . .

Now I’m about to five into my third pass and here’s where thing become problematic.

If I can scunch this under 100K, even down to 99K I’m willing to send it out.

It’s long but not excessively long and it does cover a quarter century with one character growing from a toddler to an adult.

Call it a historical romp / family generational story and let agents and editors know it’s (a) fun and (b) covers a lot of territory so it’s not padded.

But that means excising at least another 1,000 words.

There will be more tightening, but there’s another solution I don’t want to face because it means not merely editing but substantially rewriting portions of the book.

© Buzz Dixon

* If you’re Stephen King you can do whatever the %#@& you want.

** It’s not the John Jacob Jingleheimer School in the book, this is just an example.