Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

As I rework my first book (yet again) I know I have to cut a lot of scenes to better the word count. Before, I was so attached to my little scenes and couldn't imagine getting rid of or rewriting them, but now I have the opposite problem. I can see clearly now! This scene and that--not needed! Cut! Those scenes: too slow! Cut!

What I'm wondering is, do you think it's possible to cut too many scenes? Is it a possibility that all this belligerent cutting can hinder your wordcount? I'm worried there may be nothing left! :o

It probably comes down to how much you need to cut to get to your word count. My suggestion would be to keep an eye on pacing and don't cut anything that will make the central action seemed rushed, even if the scene isn't directly needed.

Ok, this may make no sense but I'll tell it as I see it.

My advice is to make sure that you don't refer to that cut scene later on and ops it's not there anymore! You'll go all crazy thinking 'What am I gonna do? Rewrite it? or change this scene, which is important? (Or delete it too if not)'

There's that problem and there's the other where in the scene you cut, there's a tiny little thing, so tiny you can't think of it at the moment, but later on, when you refer to something else, it makes no sense to the reader, because that little tiny word in that huge scene is gone.

In other word, cutting is good. It helps make a story less clugged, BUT be careful what you cut. Think twice. Re-read every word, every sentence that's in the scene. In doubts, take notes of what you removed. Copy paste it in a document named 'deleted' scenes.
And make sure to have a fresh set of eyes to check it out for plot holes or things that make no sense anymore.

That said. No, I didn't do that myself. I did keep a file with deleted scenes but stopped it because it took too much time. Now I kind of regret it sometimes. But as the saying goes, 'Do as I say, and not as I do'.

Read aloud! If something sounds like it's too rushed to you, it probably is.

James wrote: "I've heard from many people that, if its not necessary to the story, cut it. I don't particularly adhere to that

I think the problem with rules like this is that the majority of people have a thinly drawn definition of "story". They infer it to mean "plot" and cut any scene that does not advance the plot. But stories are so much more than just their plot. A scene may be necessary to a character's internal arc, it may be necessary because it advances one of the themes you feel the story serves. There are all kinds of ways a scene may be necessary without plodding forward some predetermined set of events.

By the way, while I'm on the subject, some people would advise you to cut your favorite scene, the idea being that you should let your ego go when creating the final draft of your book...I think? This is a weird piece of advice...whether or not a scene is your favorite is an irrelevant question when it comes to whether or not to cut it.

Personally, I don't aim for wordcounts either. I use word counts as a tool but I don't allow it to govern what I consider to be finished. I feel my book will be what it is, no more, no less. I'm not padding it out with pointless material to reach a number, and I'm not cutting out good stuff just to reach another number.

In my view, scenes that you feel just don't work should be cut. If there is a void left in your story by its absence, replace it with a scene or multiple scenes that DO work. Scenes that serve no purpose in your story should be cut. These are the "unnecessary" scenes from the earlier point, they don't advance plot, character, theme, etc. Maybe you just thought it would be a fun sidebar to show this particular moment, but in the final analysis it's just padding. Cut it.

That's all I've got to say about that.

I think J said it best. I think you should write the story how you want it written. When editing you should cut the fat, and not worry about wordcount. If you ♡ the manuscript the way it is then don't worry if there is a little fat in it. In the end the wordcount is just a number. There are some people who will classify your novel as a novella if it's under 150,000 words. There are others who call short 20,000 word works novels. It simply doesn't matter as much as people say it does. The only suggestion I have as far as wordcount goes is that you research your audience and genre, and try to reach a wordcount that fits within the norms of that audience/genre. Don't sweat it if your work is a bit over or under those norms. It's most likely going to be close enough for it not to matter to readers.

I'd try to save all the best sentences from the paragraphs you cut, you might be able to squeeze them in later :3

Brian wrote: "I think J said it best. I think you should write the story how you want it written. When editing you should cut the fat, and not worry about wordcount. If you ♡ the manuscript the way it is then do..."

I agree completely. You can drive yourself crazy trying to stick to an ideal wordcount.

@James thanks for clarifying that, that makes a lot more sense.

I've just cut several chapters out of one story I'm writing, simply because it was dragging and no longer seemed to fit. That said, with long-form tales, it is tempting to cut it down to the bare essentials and suffer a whittling word count. It's a tricky game to play, as you don't want to overpad, but you also don't want to lose the interest of the reader.

And with that, I think I just argued my own point.

in the first novel i ever wrote, i decided to be a vicious editor and to cut every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter that seemed possibly unnecessary to the reader's waning attention, but when i'd finished editing i only had 14 words left, so since then i've eased up a bit.

gotta say, though, they were an extremely potent 14 words.

gotta say, though, they were an extremely potent 14 words

This made me LOL.

I have to admit, I don't worry about word count too much either.
My trouble when I get cut-happy is that I start to see all the extra language, chop it all and end up with a very dry, blow by blow account of things. I then do another pass and have to put some of the pretty stuff back in!

J. David wrote: "James wrote: "I've heard from many people that, if its not necessary to the story, cut it. I don't particularly adhere to that

I think the problem with rules like this is that the majority of peop..."
Could't agree more with your first paragraph, J. Plot is essential, but if you take everything out that isn't plot, it gets very boring, very quickly.