The Art Of The Edit

Let me just start by saying that editing is my favorite part of the writing process. That's where the magic starts to happen and generally speaking, a manuscript needs to be pried from my fingers before I'll let it go. While editing, I'm always amazed to discover that it's more about what you cut than what you add in. I recently went through a line edit with a dear friend and for every line I added in, I cut ten more.

A lot of writers are reluctant to cut. And I get this--believe me, I do. They've either fallen in love with their prose, or else they're fearful that they'll lose something vital by cutting. But I'm hear to say that cutting is a writer's friend.

I remember when I was revising Every Crooked Pot, my editor was concerned about the length and asked me to cut the equivalent of 80 pages. She didn't specfify what to cut and after I recovered from hearing this news, I went back and questioned each word. What I found was that I was getting wordy and was repeating myself for fear that the reader wouldn't "get it". When I trimmed away the fat, the characters and the story emerged more vividly. It was a breakthrough experience for me as a writer.

I'm reading a book now (that shall remain title-less) and it's so weighed down by excess explanation and redundancies. It's a good book that could have been a great book if the author and the editor had taken a scalpel to it. 

Easier said than done, but I think we need to give our readers more credit. They're generally pretty smart cookies and when we overwrite, (as another dear friend told me) we rob the reader of the joy of discovering the characters and the story as it relates to them.

So my advice to anyone out there, writing, don't be afraid to cut. It's your friend!