Chopping Away
I've been helping my little brother learn the difference between odd and even numbers. How it works is he tells me a number between one and ten and I hold up that amount of fingers; then he tells me to put down half of them. If it's an even number I simply put down half of the fingers. But if it's an odd number than I make a big deal of having to chop one of my fingers in half to put down half of them because there's an "odd one out." It's a good way to get the lesson to stick in his brain.
Well. Today I get to find some of the "odd" scenes in When Life Hands You Lymes and chop them down. I'm not sure yet if I'm looking forward to it or not. Actually, I've been balking at the idea for a couple of months now. Each and every one of those scenes took time, experience, a host of emotions, and a lot of energy to concoct. I've already cut thousands upon thousands of words out of the book and I have a bit of an attachment to all the remaining scenes.
Yesterday I cut a scene that I liked. I've had it in the back of my mind for a while now that I don't really need it in WLHYL. Yes, I like it. Yes, it adds something. Yes, I poured myself into writing it. Yet it didn't actually progress the story. It was a flashback and flashbacks are supposed to be used sparingly. (When I started on the second draft of WLHYL I probably had around 5,000-7,000 words of flashback. I'm pretty sure I have about 900 words of flashbacks now.)
After cutting that scene last night I was surprised. It felt empowering. Like maybe I could do that again. Maybe I could chop down the word count that I worked so hard to build. I would make it a game to see how many words (within reason) I could get rid of. Full scenes I would keep in a separate document in case I could some how use the later on, or even post them as snippets here on Noveltea.
I determined long ago I would do whatever (okay, okay, not everything, but you catch my drift) I needed to in order to get my books where they needed to be. Over the years that has meant listening to a lot of advice from my editors that I balked at inside and cheerfully complied with on the outside. It's meant ranting for a few moments when I receive back critiques from beta readers that I don't agree with, but then detaching my emotions from the book and taking a good, hard look at what they had to say. It's meant learning and growing and sticking with a project even when I don't feel like it any more. It's meant being teachable and tossing my pride to the wind and being okay with being "wrong." And, it's meant cutting out scenes that I really like.
So, even though I'm not quite excited about chopping out those odd scenes, I know it will increase the odds of WLHYL being successful and inspiring and helping others, so in a way I am excited about it.
* * *
What about you? Do you have a hard time chopping down scenes?
Well. Today I get to find some of the "odd" scenes in When Life Hands You Lymes and chop them down. I'm not sure yet if I'm looking forward to it or not. Actually, I've been balking at the idea for a couple of months now. Each and every one of those scenes took time, experience, a host of emotions, and a lot of energy to concoct. I've already cut thousands upon thousands of words out of the book and I have a bit of an attachment to all the remaining scenes.
Yesterday I cut a scene that I liked. I've had it in the back of my mind for a while now that I don't really need it in WLHYL. Yes, I like it. Yes, it adds something. Yes, I poured myself into writing it. Yet it didn't actually progress the story. It was a flashback and flashbacks are supposed to be used sparingly. (When I started on the second draft of WLHYL I probably had around 5,000-7,000 words of flashback. I'm pretty sure I have about 900 words of flashbacks now.)
After cutting that scene last night I was surprised. It felt empowering. Like maybe I could do that again. Maybe I could chop down the word count that I worked so hard to build. I would make it a game to see how many words (within reason) I could get rid of. Full scenes I would keep in a separate document in case I could some how use the later on, or even post them as snippets here on Noveltea.
I determined long ago I would do whatever (okay, okay, not everything, but you catch my drift) I needed to in order to get my books where they needed to be. Over the years that has meant listening to a lot of advice from my editors that I balked at inside and cheerfully complied with on the outside. It's meant ranting for a few moments when I receive back critiques from beta readers that I don't agree with, but then detaching my emotions from the book and taking a good, hard look at what they had to say. It's meant learning and growing and sticking with a project even when I don't feel like it any more. It's meant being teachable and tossing my pride to the wind and being okay with being "wrong." And, it's meant cutting out scenes that I really like.
So, even though I'm not quite excited about chopping out those odd scenes, I know it will increase the odds of WLHYL being successful and inspiring and helping others, so in a way I am excited about it.
* * *
What about you? Do you have a hard time chopping down scenes?
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