Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

by Renni Browne

Scenes usually have settings as well, specific locations the readers can picture. In Victorian novels these settings were often described in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail. Nowadays literature is leaner and meaner, and it’s often a good idea to give your readers just enough detail to jump-start their imaginations so they can picture your settings for themselves.

show why your characters feel the way they do. Instead of saying “Amanda took one look at the hotel room and recoiled in disgust,” describe the room in such a way that the readers feel that disgust for themselves. You don’t want to give your readers information. You want to give them experiences.

So when you come across an explanation of a character’s emotion, simply cut the explanation. If the emotion is still shown, then the explanation wasn’t needed. If the emotion isn’t shown, rewrite the passage so that it is.