10 Ways to Shorten Your Writing
Whether you're writing your next script or your long-awaited manuscript, you'll always run into the need to "pare it down". As an author, I had the unfortunate need to trim my 600-page whopper down to a manageable 300-ish page novel. Along the way, I picked up a few tricks on how to bring brevity to my story. Here are 10 ways to cut the fat and find the good, juicy stuff. 1. It's All About Story This is a universal edit. Write down your story in outline form. This happens, then that, then that. It should fit on about one page and feel like a cause-and-effect word problem. Now comb through your list of scenes. If any of them don't cause the following scene and flow from the previous scene, you can bet it's unnecessary and you should lose it. Only keep the scenes that further your story; delete scenes that are redundant. If your character had an abusive step-father, we probably don't need to see two flashbacks. One will suffice (just make it good!). 2. Lose the Adverbs You've probably all heard this, but it's important. Do your best to nuke every single annoying adverb. For example: "He walked drunkenly to the bar and spoke grumblingly." vs. "He stumbled to the bar and grumbled." 3. That Has Got to Go Lose every single "that" you can find. "He thought he was going to die" is a whole lot better than, "He thought that he was going to die." You'll be surprised how quickly your word count shrinks. 4. Describe Less We don't always need to know how the musty old attic smells. It's musty. And old. Picture painted, move on. Getting rid of huge chunks of description helps speed up the story and keeps the audience involved. Trust your readers to paint the picture in their heads. 5. Dialogue Attribution: Who Needs It? This may be debatable, but my opinion is the less dialogue attribution, the better. Getting rid of redundant he-said she-said helps reduce your word count AND forces the reader to move more quickly. "I don't like this," he said. "Neither do I." "Let's do it anyway." "Ok." "Ok." "Fine." "Fine." "...