NINE WAYS TO SHORTEN A LONG STORY
by
Rayne Hall
If your story or novel is too long and you need to bring the wordcount down, try one or several of these techniques. Some are soft options, others require you to cut into the flesh.1. Delete introspection. Whenever your PoV spends a lot of time thinking, pondering, wondering, assessing, evaluating, remembering, reminiscing, musing and emoting, cut the lot. Condense all the thoughts in that scene into two sentences. That's it. You may expect this to hurt, but it's surprisingly painless, and the result is tight and exciting.
2. Delete the journey. Whenever your PoV spends time getting to a place - whether he's walking, driving, riding or flying - cut it. The reader doesn't need the guided tour of the flora, fauna, history and politics of the region, nor all the introspecting he does along the way. Pick up the story when he arrives. These unnecessary journeys can often be found at the beginnings of chapters.3. Delete backstory. Whenever the plot halts to give the reader a view of what happened in the past, cut that. The reader needs to know less backstory than you think. Replace the backstory scenes with single-sentence summaries of what had happened. Excessive backstory can often be found in the first few chapters.
4. If you've used the “Scene & Sequel” method of structuring, shrink the sequels. Most sequels need to be no longer than a paragraph. Often, a single sentence is enough.5. Condense the timeframe. Instead of spanning a decade, make it happen in a single year. Instead of stretching it over one week, squeeze it into one afternoon. This is astonishingly effective, saving thousands of words. However, you need to watch out for continuity errors: Make sure the characters' ages are consistent, and Christmas doesn't happen three times in one year.
6. Condense the geography. Instead of sections taking place in five different locations, move them all to the same place. A novel needs fewer words if it takes place in one town than in six.7. Reduce the characters. The fewer characters, the shorter the novel. Whenever there are several people of a kind (three children, two sisters, four colleagues) let there be just one (one child, one sister, one colleague). Combine several characters into a single person: perhaps the noisy neighbour is also the gym instructor, and the choir conductor is also the owner of that pesky cat.
8. Cut a subplot. By leaving out a subplot, you can slim your novel substantially. If it hurts to throw away those wonderful scenes, put them in the freezer and cook them up in another novel.9. Delete superfluous words. Many words carry little or no meaning; you can shed them without loss. Here are the main candidates: could, start/started to, begin/began to, that, then, somewhat, somehow, really, completely, very, say, all, just. Rigorous deletion of unnecessary words can often slim a novel by several thousand words.
Online Class “The Word-Loss Diet” with Rayne Hall
Tighten and tone your writing style, and use simple revision tricks to slim your manuscript in four weeks. Shed thousands of words without changing the plot! This class will make your manuscript shorter, your pacing faster, and your individual author voice stronger.
Please note: this is a tough class for authors who are serious about improving their writing craft, great for self-editing a manuscript before submission to agents and editors, or before indie-publishing. It is not suitable for the faint-of-heart! Students must have a full or partial manuscript of at least 20,000 words to work with for this hands-on workshop.
One month, twelve lessons, twelve assignments. 5 November - 7 December 2012. Fee: $16.00. Organiser: Lowcountry RWA. http://lrwa.thinkflowdesign.com/all-online-workshops/#NOV
About Rayne Hall
Rayne Hall has published more than thirty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates and more.
http://www.amazon.com/Rayne-Hall/e/B006BSJ5BK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Her short online classes for writers are intense with plenty of personal feedback, suitable for intermediate, advanced and professional level authors only. https://sites.google.com/site/writingworkshopswithraynehall/
Excellent, excellent advice! I will hang this next to my overblown MS, and pass it on . Thanks again :)
ReplyDeleteHi Shiela, Will you use it to cut your overblown MS? Do you dare? ;-) Rayne
DeleteThanks for the advice. I am not good at story-telling and I don't write books but these may be applied in writing other stuffs.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you write, Lea? Non-fiction? Journalism? Blogs?
DeleteWith non-fiction pieces, it's often the introduction that can be tightened or cut (you know, the bit where the writer explains to the readers why they need to read this article).
Non-fiction phrases that can be deleted or replaced with something shorter include: utilise (use), for the purpose of (for), at this time (now), completely, absolutely, totally, really, very, therefore. :-)
Great advice. I write so I found these tips very helpful. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Sheena-kay, which of the tips do you find most helpful for your writing?
DeleteGreat ideas. I usually write short and have to flesh things out but these are all things to watch out for.
ReplyDeleteHi S.P. I believe writers are like sculptors. Some work with stone, starting with a big chunk of rock and chiselling away bit after bit until the sculpture is revealed (that's me), and others start small, adding bit after bit of detail in clay until the final sculpture is complete (that's you) :-)
DeleteThis is excellent information. I have not passed the wordcount limit for my wip but I have this feeling that there is already a lot of straw in there. I'll use this when edition time comes. Too bad I'm not an author. I would like to take that online classes. Must be really helpful. I read a bit of your Writing Fight Scenes book. I wanted to buy it but i've only found kindle edition. :(
ReplyDeleteHi Dragon,
DeleteYes, removing the straw from a WiP can be a good plan, regardless of length. What do you mean you're not an author? You write, don't you? :-)
There are many online classes for all levels of writers (although I specialise in teaching at advanced level, others teachers cater for beginner and intermediate levels.)
What format would you like for the Writing Fight Scenes book? It's available in different electronic formats - pdf, mobi, epub etc - from Smashwords.com
Unfortunately, there's no paper version ... Strangely, some reviewers say they own the paper version of the book, which puzzles me a lot. :-D
Indeed I write, but I was told only those who have been actually published may call themselves *authors* and that, I have not been. I've been writing for 18 years now but I can say I'm a beginner in regards of writing in English. I've wrote many stories but it's the first time I make a serious attempt of novel in a foreign language. So what one would need to be able to take one of your classes? About your book, my dragon angel already pointed me in the right direction, hehe. It's just technology and dragons don't get along fast. :)
DeleteThere's clear definition of when a writer becomes an author. Some say, an author gets paid - but I don't think that's necessarily the case. Perhaps an author is someone who writes with a view to getting paid? This would include people who aren't earning money from their writing YET.
DeleteWhether my classes are right for you or not, is difficult to say. The level of English wouldn't be the problem, it's more about the willingness to work and also about the understanding of the writer's craft. For example, if I talk about something like Point of View, Black Moment, Backstory, do you understand what I mean?
Wait, I've just had an idea... I'll be back in a moment with the information.
I'm teaching a free 2-day online seminar at the end of this month. May you'd like to try that? It will be similar to the material and style of my full-length workshops, so you can experience if it's right for you.
Delete29-30 September. The topic is "Suspense" and you can use it to write or revise a part of your WiP.
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=1870
How does this sound?
It sounds excellent! I did a lot of research about Point of View and Viewpoint, and I think I got it by now. I know backstory too. Black moment, now I know :P. I'm a hard worker and quick learner. I'll write you a mail so you tell me how it works. I fear Jeff is about to run out of space here, hehehe. Thanks!
DeleteYou two are welcome to all the space you need. (As long as Blogger has no problem, I have no problem.)
DeleteHi Dragon, those words were just examples, to give us an idea if you'd be able to cope with my classes. :-) If there's anything you don't understand, you're welcome to ask for explanations and clarifications - indeed, I encourage that. I just want to avoid novices getting overwhelmed by professional level instructions and writerly jargon. :-)
DeleteWish I had that problem - I always need to add words.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had your problem! I enjoy adding words - fleshing out detail, sharpening conflict, building atmosphere. It's the tightening I find tough (though I'm getting good at it)
ReplyDeleteRayne, thanks for such a good article! The discussion arose recently about how some of us have too much flesh in our books--whether it be fat, muscle, or simply an extra appendage, so the post is timely too.
ReplyDeleteGood advice. We all need all the help we can get. (How do you find the time to set up all these great posts?)
ReplyDeleteI love this. Cutting word count is something I always find myself having to do and it's been really good for my writing. These are some excellent ways to get it done. My first novel topped out at 150,000 words for a YA fantasy. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, with e-books the word count limits are not as rigid as they used to be with print books, because the cost of paper, printing, transport and storage doesn't apply.
DeleteBut genre still gives a frame for the wordcount. 150,000 is a bit long for YA.
Years ago, when I shopped Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy, a genre that allows longer books than most genres) it was turned down by most publishers on the grounds that it was too long. Admittedly, it was very long - 350,000 words. One publisher said they'd be interested if I could cut it to 100,000. So I cut like crazy, tightening the writing style, condensing the time frame, eliminating subplots. The result was better than the long version. But when I got it down to 150,000 words, I realised that this was as far as I was willing to go. Any further cuts would have damaged the book. I declined to do that.
Of course, now with ebooks, size no longer matters, and people who've read Storm Dancer seem to appreciate a big book.
I'm glad I took the advice to shorten the overlong book - but I'm also glad put my foot down and refused to shorten it further.
Where do you draw the line? With your YA book, could/can you shorten it without harming the story?
Just... so good. And so relevant to adventure/fantasy stories. I find myself falling into these traps all the time. To reverse a well-known adage:
ReplyDelete"It's not the journey, but the destination."
Ha!
I am also struggling to cut back on the length of my story. When I first began to outline, I had no clue how many plots and subplots were necessary to fill 300+ pages. By the time I realized I had enough things happening to fill a 700+ page book, my subplots had become so intertwined it was nearly impossible to pare things down again. So I'm now learning how to combine scenes to save space.
ReplyDelete