Nine Ways to Shorten a Long Story by Rayne Hall

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/

August is Awesome Because of Charlie Holmberg

I'm such a fan of awesome people, and Charlie Holmberg definitely qualifies as awesome.  I'm an avid fan of her "Link Blitz" posts every Friday.  (She always manages to find something fascinating for us.)

She spotlights "Someday Stars" every other Thursday, introducing her readers to those that she believes will be a bona fide star--someday.

I've always loved Charlie's upbeat blogging personality, her positive outlook toward life (wherever it may take her) and her genuine love of family.

Congratulate her on all those works she's finished and give her a great big welcome!

 

Step 1: Finish Your Manuscript

Before I dive into this, let me make it clear that I don’t have any writing credentials outside a few small-town story contests. Because of that, I don’t expect anyone to take my writing “advice” with any merit. However, one thing I can do is finish a book, and the first step to being published is, of course, having a complete manuscript.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since junior high, started focusing on it in high school, and began taking it seriously in my first year of college. I started my first book when I was 13, but I didn’t finish a [different] book until 19. If my memory is correct, the first book I finished was the eighth I had started (not including my dabbling in fanfiction, which we won’t get into!).

So what changed?

The thing that really got me focused was utilizing a daily word count. I fluctuated between a minimum of 500 and 1,000 words a day, every day. Sometimes it was really hard to get those words in when I wasn’t excited about the scene or didn’t know what would happen next, but I had to do those words, otherwise they would accumulate, because I refused to forgive a day’s word count unless absolutely necessary.

Charlie Holmberg's awesome blog

The next step was turning off my internal editor. We all have one: the mini version of us that, in the voice of our 11th grade English teacher, says, “That sounds weird,” or “You’ve already used that word!” The sooner you murder this editor and bury him six feet under (later to be resurrected as a blood-thirsty and immortal revisionist), the more words you will write. Stop thinking about it. Say it can’t be done? So did I. But if you try hard enough—if you remind yourself that revisions will come later, and they will be glorious—it can be done. I have the curse fortune of being an editor in my consciousness as well, and if I can shut my internal editor off, so can you. As is, I hand out drafts to my alpha readers without ever giving the manuscript a second glance. Once it’s written, it’s out of mind. (Outlines help.)

Lastly, you need to make time to write. Not find time to write, make it. The reason we always arrive at our son’s soccer practice on time or catch the latest episode of America’s Got Talent, despite our busy schedules, is because we make those things priorities. There comes a point where you have to ask yourself, How much do I want this? The more you want to write, the more time you will find to write. The more excited you are about you manuscript, the more time you will find the write. The more you ache for your story to be on a shelf at Barnes & Noble, the more time you will find to write.

I’ll use my sister and I as an example. Both of us love writing; both of us are writers. My sister is currently finishing her revisions of her first completed novel, which she started three years ago. I’m currently drafting my seventh.

So many? :-)

My sister, 2 ½ years my senior, has two kids with a third planned, and a brand new poodle. She is incredibly accomplished. She’s an Irish step dancer. She plays the cello, the piano, the tin whistle, the hammered dulcimer, and more. She’s fluent in Japanese. She runs the Girls’ Achievement Days for her church, which is virtually boy scouts for young ladies. She cooks all her family meals, sews all her daughters’ Halloween costumes, and maintains a rather seismic garden. She also has plans to learn how to shoot a gun.

Now look at me. I have a full-time job, and I write. Outside of that, my hobbies are limited to my learning to play the ukulele and the occasional brushing up on my neglected piano skills. I do enjoy cooking dinners when my husband isn’t scheduled for work. I used to bake a lot, but now only do on occasion. I used to play the flute and the French horn. I used to write music. I used to win awards for my compositions and played live shows. These are hobbies I pushed aside for the sake of writing, and while I am not nearly as well-rounded as my sister, outside of my husband and family, getting published is the most important thing on my map right now, and the highest and hardest goal I have set for myself.

So when it comes to time, if you want to write, write. If writing is a priority to you, make it a priority. No need to be a Nazi about it—life happens. Problems arise. Kids need mothering. The day job needs doing. I can’t recall which author said this, but one of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever heard in regards to finding time to write went something like, “Nothing needs your attention at four o’clock in the morning.”

Butt in chair + hands on keyboard = productivity.

Productivity = finish books.

Finished books = queries to agents and editors.

Queries, though long and tiresome, = published works.

Much luck to everyone on this writing journey, and thank you to Jeff for letting me leak brain all over his blog. Let’s get those manuscripts finished and show the publishing industry just what we’re made of!

Charlie Holmberg is awesome!

About Charlie Holmberg:


I’m a technical writer and editor from Salt Lake City, Utah, currently living in Moscow, Idaho. I play the ukulele, pretend to speak Japanese, and really want a dog.

Links:
Blog: myselfaswritten.blogspot.com
Twitter: @cnholmberg