A lot of the editing process involves figuring out what parts of your story are actually necessary. When you're writing the first draft, it's great to just let the ideas flow and not hold yourself back from getting them out. Once you're at the editing stage, however, that's when you really need to start analyzing the story and realizing which parts need to go. This could be as small as cutting individual words or as big as whole scenes and chapters.
Every cut won't seem obvious right away. The line by line edits may be easier to deal with first. You'll know if a particular word or phrase feels awkward or just doesn't work. You may need to rewrite a sentence, or you may realize you don't need that sentence at all. Figuring out the best way to get the story across without using a lot of unnecessary or unfitting words will help to polish the overall story and make it better.
Cutting scenes and chapters won't be as easy. You may spend a lot of time trying to rewrite a scene that isn't working to finally realize you don't actually need it. The scene doesn't even need to be bad for it to be cut sometimes, either. You may have written a great scene, but as you develop your story more and more, you may realize it just doesn't fit anymore. Deciding to cut a large chunk of story can be an emotional process. You may try to rationalize keeping it, but if it isn't going to work, eventually you'll come to realize it.
Of course, cutting isn't always the only answer. Maybe you have a scene that has some necessary moments or information, but the important parts aren't quite long enough to pull off a whole scene. You may be able to move whatever information is necessary to a different scene or chapter. If you're trying to fill in a whole scene or chapter and most of it is unnecessary, it will probably slow down the story or even make it seem boring. You always want something important to be happening in order to keep the reader interested.
The realization to cut a whole chapter actually took me by surprise. Now that I'm working on the third draft of my novel, I've come to realize that my sixth chapter actually isn't necessary and slows the story down. There is definitely some important information in there, but I know I can move it to the previous chapter and still have everything go smoothly. So making this cut will help speed things up within the story, as well as getting rid of a lot of unnecessary words. Now that I know I have to squeeze in the important stuff into a shorter scene, rather than an entire chapter, I'll really have to think about what words are necessary to get the point across.
Have you ever cut a whole chapter? Or consolidated two parts into one?
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I just moved some info from a later chapter to another. The first actually. It worked so much better! =)
ReplyDeleteIt's tough deciding when to cut chapters or merge them. With my last novel, I did cut a whole chapter. I thought it was clever, but it really didn't push the story forward. Thankfully I have fantastic critique partners to help with that!
ReplyDeleteSometimes, after editing and stepping away from your book for a while and really think about it, it becomes obvious which scenes and chapters aren't necessary. They are much easier to cut that way and I have cut a ton of them! I recently deleted a whole prologue.
ReplyDeleteI have had to cut multiple chapters and, in doing so, needed emotional therapy...it's tough stuff!!
ReplyDeleteI've cut whole stories before. My scissors are dull from all the cutting. Usually, I save the cut bits though in case they may become necessary later. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
ReplyDeleteI feel you with cutting. From the first draft of Thanmir War to where I ended at, I cut 30K. :D A lot of those scenes were rewritten, tossed out, or completely changed.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're doing editing.
My first book was 150K on the first draft. Through edits, it ended up around 75K. In short, yes, I have cut whole scenes and chapters.
ReplyDeleteI reduced a chapter to a paragraph on the first book of my series. My CPs said it was unnecessary detail! If we keep in mind we're trying to condense to what is essential, it becomes easier. I do save out takes in another file though!
ReplyDeleteI found a prequel that I wrote to my current project (which will be put aside to rewrite the prequel) and it had 3 chapters of a different plot line (I was writing different chapters for two different plot lines and keeping them separate), and based on what I had written in my current project, would not work one iota. So all 3 chapters are being pitched for possible usage as a pre-prequel.
ReplyDeleteFather Nature's Corner
Seems like most of my writing these days is cutting out stuff that either didn't work or wasn't necessary to the plot. But I had no choice. The manuscript was way too long.
ReplyDelete