Cutting Insights to Reduce Wordcount
Updated: 5 days ago
1) Distance + Feedback = Perspective
It's hard to cut precious words when you're too close to the work! That's why taking a step back can be so valuable.
Distance lets you read with fresh eyes and consider feedback without possessiveness or defensiveness. Feedback can provide consensus, new ideas, and a different way to perceive the manuscript.
Distance: A long break (1+ months) from your MS.
Feedback: Thoughts on your MS from betas, CPs, agents, or editors.
Perspective: The ability to read your MS as a reader, not an author,
and assess feedback impartially.
2) Assess the Arcs
Do you have too many arcs? Maybe in addition to the main plot, your MS is sagging from the weight of multiple love stories, several character growth arcs, and a few other fun subplots.
It happens to the best of us. When we write, we explore what interests us. But when we revise, we must whittle away whatever doesn't serve the story.
Cut any subplots that do not connect to the main story.
Combine/consolidate similar plotlines (which may also help eliminate extra characters).
If the story still feels like there’s too much going on, cut loose some secondary arcs.
3) Cut Redundant Scenes
You might think your scenes are all different because they involve a different setting or scene-level conflict. But they might be showing the same character or plot development without any progression from what came before. That's a problem.
For example:
Multiple scenes that show the characters falling in love.
Multiple scenes that illustrate danger.
Even if the scene shows characters falling in love or facing danger in a different way than before, if there is no progression in the character/relationship arc or plot, then the the scene is redundant.
If your scene is not raising the stakes, escalating the conflict, progressing a character arc, or moving the plot forward on a global story level, then *snip snip snip.*
And if there are bits of the scene that are valuable to the story, you can move them to another scene and tweak as needed. Chop the rest.
4) Perfect the Pacing
The last thing you want is to lose your reader's attention. Cutting text where your story drags does the double duty of reducing wordcount to a more acceptable level and ensuring your prose is tight enough to keep readers engaged.
How do you know where a story may drag? Look out for:
Excessive description
Excessive internalization
Excessive stage direction
Drawn-out dialogue
Drawn-out flashbacks
Repeated information
Too much passiveness
Too much backstory
Overly long sentences
Overwrought scene intro and conclusion setups
When in doubt, ask beta readers and CPs to target dragging areas during their readthrough.
5) Restrict to Relevance
Writers go down rabbit holes. Our research leads us to places, concepts, and people we want to explore. Our characters grow minds of their own and engage in conversations and side-quests. Our own minds use writing as a means to process and reflect upon our experiences.
Not all of it will serve the story.
Here's the litmus test: Is this text relevant to the plot or character arcs?
If the answer is no, chop it. For example:
A fun and interesting conversation the two MCs share, but which has no or little bearing on the story
A detour to a beautiful location with a fascinating history, but where nothing material happens that serves the story
6) Evaluate Impact (Less is More)
Sometimes you can tighten wording to deliver a bigger emotional impact. It's the old "less is more" idea. Give the reader space to infer the unsaid, or better yet, feel the unsaid. Give action room to breathe. Let the dust settle.
Some examples of when brevity improves impact:
A sudden gut punch vs. drawn-out detail of a fist coming toward the character, making contact, the gradual realization of pain
Blinking back tears vs. describing the heartbreak and angst in detail
Here is an example of how you can trim an explanation that is already implied by the earlier text:
Before: My chest fluttered with anxiety, knowing what was coming.
After: My chest fluttered with anxiety.
7) Write Tight (Wordsmithing)
This is where we get really granular. Wordsmithing should only take place after the larger cuts (e.g. scenes, characters, etc.) have already occurred. You don't want to spend time wordsmithing text that will ultimately be cut.
Where possible, construct sentences in fewer words. For example:
Before: Katz and Paul approach us, their arms slung comfortably around each other. Katz leans into Paul’s teddy-bear frame.
After: Katz leans into Paul's teddy-bear frame as they approach arm-in-arm.
Cut unnecessary filler words like:
Just, that, like, sort of, kind of
Actually, really, very, simply
Seemed to, started to, thought
8) Share other word-cutting tips!
Did I miss anything? Do you have some word-cutting tools and techniques of your own? Or any other commentary regarding the tips presented here?
Share in the comments!
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