Thread: To Cut or Not to Cut...

I have been faced with a WORD LIMIT of 1,000 words. Right now 1,000 words has become my enemy.
I am writing a short fiction story about an intermediate school girl who has an assignment due when she gets back from spring break. Unfortunately; she procrastinated, and now she has one day to complete her assignment before facing her teacher first thing in the morning.

I'm at 1,678 words.....


and I love my story. I don't want to take anything out.


I have to though. So says my instructor..so those are the rules.


Is there anyone who has any experience with cutting words? My deadline is August, due to my maternity leave. New mommy, and new baby is = lots of time used.

I have valuable insight, and will repay with my editing experience. Thank You, Smoonee

What I do if I reach a point where I love it but have to cut it for a word limit, SAVE IT. Then SAVE AS...and give the second document a different name or add something to the title to show this is the version you'll use for your deadlined work.

Make absolutely sure that you have just made two identical documents with two different names.

Then close the original and go to your hack-and-slash copy and start yanking things out. Anything that has been restated, figure out which to keep and which to delete. Don't be scared to do this because you still have your good copy (hopefully backed up somewhere, too, in case you inadvertently get your docs mixed). The freedom of knowing that I have an untouched copy that I like really helps me to be ruthless in editing down the work for the 'official' version.

Good luck and congrats!!

Excellent idea!


"Then close the original and go to your hack-and-slash copy and start yanking things out" Foxee ~
I really like the way you described this


I will definitely give this a try. It's difficult when what one has written seems so perfect, and the reaper comes in to say it's time to cut.

Thank You & Happy Writing, Smoonee

It's a tough call. Foxee has the formula, I do more or less exactly as she suggests. (I am trying to synopsis a synopsis, which is why I am sleep-walking and kicking the ca)t.

The only other suggestion I can offer is decide what the story is about - a single phrase, or at the most a sentence. Stick it on your screen and with the red pencil poised read every sentence referring to the sticky each time.




Congratulations.

You can go through almost any tightly-written news story and take out one-third of the words without losing anything.

You learn to do that in the field when the magazine you're stringing for wants 2,000 words, the UP 'A' wire editor wants a thousand, and the UP 'B' wire editor wants 400 words.

There are always words that can be cut. Consider Jimmy Doolittle's official report of a test-flight that ended when the wings of the test aircraft collapsed as he pulled out of a dive. Doolittle parachuted to safety then filled out the official report.

Describe in full the event: Wings broke.
Describe the action taken: Jumped out.

Notice that his report contains four words. This can be cut by 25 percent without losing any information.

event - Wings broke.
action taken - Jumped.

The 'out' is redundant. It adds nothing. Go through your work and you will find words that do not add meaning. Very often they will be modifiers.

Fiction should work the same. Foxee's advice should be followed whenever you are editing anything you are writing.

To Cut or Not to Cut...

I have been faced with a WORD LIMIT of 1,000 words. Right now 1,000 words has become my enemy.
I am writing a short fiction story about an intermediate school girl who has an assignment due when she gets back from after spring break. Unfortunately; she procrastinated, and now she has one day to complete her assignment before facing her teacher first thing in the morning.

I'm at 1,678 words.....


and I love my story. I don't want to take anything out.


I have to though. So says my instructor..so those are the rules.

Is there anyone who has any experience with cutting words? My deadline is August, due to my maternity leave. New mommy, and new baby is = lots of time used.

I have valuable insight, and will repay with my editing experience. Thank You, Smoonee

In the blink of an eye 136 words becomes 98 (28% fewer), and I believe there is no meaning lost. I dare say it could be tighter as this is only a quick job, but you get the idea.

There's an idiom you'll come across that goes something along the lines of 'why use three words when you can use one.' So try to reword the story without losing the meaning. He ran as fast as he could =​ He sprinted.


Good luck

Scott

Bilston Blue - Well played, sir. Excellent demonstration.

I know nothing of your writing, so this advice may not work for you.

Generally when my students (9th grade english) have to write narrative works with a page limit and they've gone over, the easiest fix is to cross off the introduction. I actually recommend that for almost every story. Usually I see people write several paragraphs of introduction before any action starts. By cutting the intro and jumping straight into the action, you save words AND hook your reader more easily. Then the reader can be excited as they discover things as they go (rather than you handing them all the backstories upfront).

As I said, this may or may not be the case for your work.

Um, never yet really had a experience where the story is to long, just where I don't really like a part and am unsure weather to cut it or keep it. I just go with cut it, if it was really amazing you wouldn't be questioning, and if you do decide you like it, it allways good to get a chance to rewrite it. Yo try it again, and may be some new little thread or idea will come out of it to make it better.

Bilston hit the nail on the head. There's always plenty to be eliminated from a story without changing the story itself.

Are there places where you've shown relatively unimportant things that could be told more briefly instead? If you cut all of your adverbs and adjectives and only put back the ones that are essential, does that save you a few words? Have you added description that doesn't contribute much to the story? Is there backstory that can be hinted at rather than explained, or cut altogether? Dialogue is often baggy in a first draft. Be bold. Can you tighten it?