Ask an Editor: The 10% Rule

Time once again for Ask an Editor, wherein I play the editor and write about whatever I want because no one ever asks me anything. Today we’re dealing with an old writer’s rule.

I heard once that when you revise you should always aim to cut 10% from your manuscript. Is it true? What am I supposed to cut?!

Yes. It is true. Now let me explain. Like pretty much every “rule” ever, there’s a spirit of the rule and a letter of the rule. The letter of the rule (you must cut 10%) is overly simplistic and rigid and, no, that’s not true. But the spirit of the rule? Totally.

But, you say, I write like Hemingway! I am the essence of not overwriting!

Which is great. So 10% is probably not going to apply to you. But cutting still is. Here’s the thing: Nobody writes a clean first draft. Especially when we’re in our grooves. We often throw in little writerly tics that we’ll need to trim. We write more like how we speak than we may intend. The spirit of this rule is in cleaning up your prose, not removing egregious beats or descriptions (though those happen pretty often.) You mean to tell me you’ve never been really hungry and suddenly found yourself describing a character’s lunch in agonizing detail? Oh, just me? Kudos, then.

Some major things to watch out for:

Unless you’re writing in omniscient point of view (and most people don’t even if they think they do), “realized” “understood” and similar are rarely needed. These phrases can be cut and the thought they’re attached to can stand on its own within the POV (even in 3rd person, since it’s probably close 3rd.) Own that sentence!

Along with those, “felt” and “seemed” usually indicate distancing or telling language (or both).

“There are” “It was” etc. can similarly meet the ax. Those are the subject and verb of your sentence. Snooze. Make it stronger. Utilitarian language has its place but “There were six stairs leading to the basement” can be utilitarianly written as, “Six stairs led to the basement.” See what I did there? Participles (-ing verbs) are GREAT clues that your sentence could potentially use some streamlining.

What about story filler?

Action and sex scenes often get used to bulk up manuscripts, and they can be used really effectively written out. But they have to actually accomplish something worth showing it. Is there a character moment? Do we learn important backstory during the combat? No? Sex for the sake of sex and fighting for the sake of fighting are snoozes and those can meet your scalpel, too.

When I first started writing, I could easily draft an 80-90k manuscript. Once I learned to tighten my prose, my manuscripts rarely clock in over 70k now. (Now I have to clean it up for different reasons. ;))

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