too many words about too many words
I can't believe it was only a month ago* that I gave myself a deadline and really got moving on editing, which I think is a sign of just how rapidly I've been moving on editing compared to before. I've been working about twice as fast as most of the rest of the year. But of course, it's not about speed. It's about word count.
During NaNoWriMo, the goal is to increase your word count every day. During editing, at least when you've written a (freaking) 300,000-word first draft, the goal is to decrease, decrease, decrease. This week I final-for-now-ized Part 2 (out of 4 uneven conceptual parts), which was the most bloated section of the first draft. The original length of Part 2 was 122,000 words. After editing, it's 53,000. I win.
I removed hardly any plot in cutting out more than half of this section. I think there was only one interesting event that I decided should be left out. The big chunks that went were scenes and conversations in which nothing really happened. The important nuggets from these got folded into other scenes. And of course, a whole lot got shortened. Conversations, internal monologues, and descriptions shrunk. And I did away with so many unnecessary details and bits of action. I kept being amazed by things like why I thought it was important to include the fact that this insignificant object was carried from one room to the next. I guess when I'm just writing, I put in everything I see happening in the scene, but it turns out the reader doesn't need to know. I've been learning a lot about writing during the editing process.
If I can cut the rest of the novel by about half, which I now feel confident I can, I'll be able to get in range of my 150k target. Maybe even less after I go back and edit Part 1 again, since I've become more ruthless about my text during Part 2, and I'm now realizing I left stuff in the beginning that doesn't need to be there. It's still going to be a long book to sell as an unknown author, but I think it can happen. I've located some helpful supporting evidence at Amazon, which offers word counts (as well as some other cool stats) on books that have Search Inside.
Highly scientific short list of long debut novels I thought to look up:
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: 155,255 words
Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff: 154,374 words
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl: 190,452 words (!)
Mostly I just think it's a nifty little feature.
Tomorrow I leave for a week's vacation in Indiana. What do you mean, why? Isn't Indiana your favorite vacation destination? This is a family-related trip, but it's not my family, so it should be a relaxing time. (Of course that's a joke about time with my family not being relaxing. Hi, jenxteen!) The temperature may actually be lower than it's been here recently, but I'm sure it will be more humid. I'm hoping for thunderstorms, the only weather phenomenon I miss in California.
* or that it's butter
During NaNoWriMo, the goal is to increase your word count every day. During editing, at least when you've written a (freaking) 300,000-word first draft, the goal is to decrease, decrease, decrease. This week I final-for-now-ized Part 2 (out of 4 uneven conceptual parts), which was the most bloated section of the first draft. The original length of Part 2 was 122,000 words. After editing, it's 53,000. I win.
I removed hardly any plot in cutting out more than half of this section. I think there was only one interesting event that I decided should be left out. The big chunks that went were scenes and conversations in which nothing really happened. The important nuggets from these got folded into other scenes. And of course, a whole lot got shortened. Conversations, internal monologues, and descriptions shrunk. And I did away with so many unnecessary details and bits of action. I kept being amazed by things like why I thought it was important to include the fact that this insignificant object was carried from one room to the next. I guess when I'm just writing, I put in everything I see happening in the scene, but it turns out the reader doesn't need to know. I've been learning a lot about writing during the editing process.
If I can cut the rest of the novel by about half, which I now feel confident I can, I'll be able to get in range of my 150k target. Maybe even less after I go back and edit Part 1 again, since I've become more ruthless about my text during Part 2, and I'm now realizing I left stuff in the beginning that doesn't need to be there. It's still going to be a long book to sell as an unknown author, but I think it can happen. I've located some helpful supporting evidence at Amazon, which offers word counts (as well as some other cool stats) on books that have Search Inside.
Highly scientific short list of long debut novels I thought to look up:
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: 155,255 words
Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff: 154,374 words
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl: 190,452 words (!)
Mostly I just think it's a nifty little feature.
Tomorrow I leave for a week's vacation in Indiana. What do you mean, why? Isn't Indiana your favorite vacation destination? This is a family-related trip, but it's not my family, so it should be a relaxing time. (Of course that's a joke about time with my family not being relaxing. Hi, jenxteen!) The temperature may actually be lower than it's been here recently, but I'm sure it will be more humid. I'm hoping for thunderstorms, the only weather phenomenon I miss in California.
* or that it's butter