Cutting words

Hi everyone,

I found two out of my ten manuscript pages where I can add micro-tension. Since I can’t read more than ten pages a day—see earlier blogs for reasons—I have some time on my hands. So I decided to go back, using my notes from my micro-tension draft, and start deleting words in my manuscript on the computer so that when I finish my micro-tension draft I’ll have fresh pages to modify. Also, I’ll know exactly how many words I have to play around with.

Today, I deleted 587 words. I stopped at this number because that’s how many I added with my additions to chapter one and my 12 pages of sample micro-tension. So I’ve only broken even.

But all the words I cut from here on out, can be replaced with micro-tension.

I’m sorry I wasn’t blogging when I deleted 28K words off my manuscript because I could detail here how I was able to delete them but I have a general idea. I’ll summarize some of the 587 words I deleted using some of the categories I noticed when I deleted my 28K words.

Redundant words:

All: we all entered the room. It’s presumed that everyone entered by the word ‘we’ so ‘all’ in this case doesn’t add anything. Doing a document search for the word ‘all’ is useful because we sometimes use it when we don’t have to. And we rarely notice when we do.

Contractions:

1.     Will not—won’t

2.     Is not—isn’t

3.     It is—it’s

4.     He/she is—he’s/she’s

5.     I am—I’m

These are obvious but still I find myself noticing an ‘I am’ here and there or a ‘will not’.

One word versions of two word phrases:

1.     Look like—resemble

2.     Make sure—ensure

3.     Have to—must

4.     Search for—locate

5.     Figure out—discover/learn

6.     Go back—return

Repetition:

This one is specific to a story. And it’s important to note, that repetition doesn’t mean using the same words, it’s really just referring to the same meaning.

For example:

I did {action} ‘without a word’

‘My throat was too swollen to tell him…’

These are effectively saying the same thing. My POV character couldn’t speak. So I deleted the first one.

Another example:

The use of the word ‘upward’ and then later saying ‘above me’. From the context, it was clear that the smoke was now above her as it had travelled upward. So I deleted ‘above me’.

Okay, that’s all from me. I’ll give more examples of words I deleted tomorrow.

See you then,

Happy writing,

Joanne.

Micro-tension draft: 97 pages