Just finished my novel

Get beta readers. They'll tell you what's too long. That's my best advice.

Congrats on finishing!

Look for strong verbs that say what a dull verb/adverb combo say. walked slowly...versus...trudged, plodded.

Look for descriptive nouns that can help you strip out adjectives. V-neck, button down, sweater...versus...cardigan.

Some writers overuse dialogue tags. If you have two people engaged in conversation, or if you're characters have really distinctive voices, which they should in most cases, you don't need many dialogue tags at all. Cut them.

Strip out descriptions you don't need.

In Sci-fi, writers often like to tell about their world. Look for instances where you can show what you told. You may be able to strip out entire paragraphs of narrative.

Any scenes that don't convey character or reveal something vital to the plot or a reader's understanding of it, should be cut out or at least scaled down and combined with something that IS important.

Cut out any info dumps, and think of ways you can reveal the same information in a different way.

Look for filtering, she saw, she could see, I heard, I could hear. Cut all those extra words. Just name the impression. I heard a man scream...versus...A man screamed.

Rewrite any passive sentences so they're active. You can usually lose some words there. You should go active most of the time anyway; it's more engaging. A dog chomped my calf...versus...My calf was bitten by a dog.

Look for wordiness and trim.

Cut superfluous words: that, there was (just say what's there) just, really, very, most, simply, was/were before a verb like standing (say: she/they stood by the bar).

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Also try putting the novel away for a few days. That way you can have "fresh eyes" The things you think are brilliant on Monday wont shine as much by the end of the week. And the parts you could not even think of deleting are the first to go. Good luck : )

marianaz:
I am wayyyy over my word count limit. I had been aiming for 80,000, which I gathered was the max limit these days in the industry, but I am quiet a bit over now.

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Just so you don't worry, there is no hard and fast absolute maximum word count limit for YA fiction. There's another thread in this Forum that discusses the subject here and you should check out the link that Gigli added to Kristin Nelson's Blog, where she basically says that it's not the number of words that's important, it's the pace.

Unless your novel is something like 180,000 words, then you don't really need to worry about the word count. If you're looking a word count figure that could be viewed as a warning sign, then 120,000 is when you need to start thinking about whether you've got too much in there (although my own manuscript is going to come out at around that level and my agent isn't too worried about it provided the pacing is tight).

marianaz:
I need to know how I can reduce it and what are some good strategies to choose scenes to delete without taking away from the story.

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courtneyv's listed all the usual suspects. The only thing I'd add is that you should look for repetition of actions on a page, e.g. if you've got someone talking and pacing during a scene, then you only need to say that once, you don't always need to set out what they're doing while they speak.

marianaz:
Also I'm wondering if getting a beta reader at this point is a good idea, or if I should do one round of revisions first. Many beta readers don't want to read anything that isn't ready enough for an agent.

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I think you should go through your manuscript as many times as you think necessary to get it in the best shape that you can get it in, then find a beta reader either through SYW or elsewhere to take a long hard look at it. Don't assume that betas only want perfect manuscripts - most are aware that it's something you're looking to perfect and their role is to help you achieve that. In fact, if you think there are any problems with it that you're stuck on how to solve, it's good to mention that to the beta up front so they can keep it in mind when reading.

MM

Congrats on getting it on paper! That's one of the hardest parts. You might also want to look at changing passive verbs to active ones. Look for the variations of "to be" and see if there is a better way to say them.

Congratulations, once you revise the whole thing, it's almost guaranteed to be a hell of a lot shorter.

Just spend your time cutting out needless words, and think of ways to change sentences so they have more meaning but less text.

I know it's tempting to add stuff, but if you want to reduce the amount you have to be disciplined. If you start adding sentences on here and there, it's easy to go over the top and write loads extra, which means you will end up having to delete scenes.

Depends on how you want to do it i guess, also get a beta-reader or two because it will help.

First - congrats! And good luck on the editing.

marianaz said:

I recently completed the first draft to my sci-fi novel. I am happy with it and will soon start revisions. There is just one problem. I am wayyyy over my word count limit. I had been aiming for 80,000, which I gathered was the max limit these days in the industry, but I am quiet a bit over now. I need to know how I can reduce it and what are some good strategies to choose scenes to delete without taking away from the story. Thanks in advance!

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Don't cut scenes until you cut adverbs and adjectives. And if anyone decides to "sit down" have them just "sit." Unless they are already sitting and they sit up straight.

After that, then think about cutting scenes, or, cut unnessesary characters. I wrote a 114k hideous time travel monstrocity and I could cut one character and get rid of a whole event.

There's that good list of stuff to look for to edit at the top of the Basic stuff in the first grouping of forums.

I haven't read what anyone else wrote, so I'll stay away from book recs.

marianaz:
MM- I'm worried about the word count b/c it's my first novel and it's usually harder to pitch it to agents without a track record.

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I understand that lack of a track record is a worry for new writers, but all credentials mean is that an agent is more likely to put your manuscript closer to the top of the pile. It doesn't mean that they will take you.

An agent will take on any manuscript they think they can sell, regardless of whether the writer is new or established.

And if it's any reassurance, I got offered representation when the only publishing credential to my main was a short story sale (non YA) to a token paying magazine and despite my warning my agent that the manuscript was going to come in at around 110,000 words.

Seriously - word count is not the life and death issue that people think it is.

MM

This blog post is really really useful CLICK HERE and this book was a god send for me CLICK HERE.

The main thing agents who read my book said was how 'tight' it was... like Momento Mori said, it's not about word count really. It's about making every word, every scene count. Good luck!

marianaz said:

I recently completed the first draft to my sci-fi novel. I am happy with it and will soon start revisions. There is just one problem. I am wayyyy over my word count limit. I had been aiming for 80,000, which I gathered was the max limit these days in the industry, but I am quiet a bit over now. I need to know how I can reduce it and what are some good strategies to choose scenes to delete without taking away from the story. Thanks in advance!

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Everyone has given great advice.
Here is what I did (but keep in mind I only have 10 posts ):

My first draft of a fantasy novel was 100,000. I tightened it up using some advice given here (cut out dialogue tags and excessive adjectives, use better word choice, etc). But to be honest, it didn't shave my story down that much. A few hundred to a thousand words tops. Not nearly enough.

Then I started to really look at the story. Some scenes I threw in because they were humorous and showed a side of a character, but was it really necessary? Probably not. So I deleted those (even though I liked them).

Because my story was fantasy, it had quest elements to it. So I often showed characters journeying towards their goal every step of the way. Then I realized, I could cut out A LOT by not doing that. Instead, I chose selected scenes that were really important and made the dialogue in a way that the reader could assume certain things already happened. That helped the most.

I also scanned for excessive descriptions, deleted those.

Since your novel is sci-fi, I assume it has a lot of world building like fantasy. That was the other thing I tightened up. I had characters explain things really, really well. But too well, as if they were teachers, which they are not. So instead, I made them explain things in a blunt fashion, more short and concise, not explaining every detail. Because in the real world, people just get to the point. So even though I knew certain things were true for the world, if my MC didn't need to know about it, I deleted it.

Now, I'm down to 80,000!

It was hard at first, but once you realize what you don't need, it just keeps on snowballing... you'll see

Congratulations on finishing! I just finished too, it's a great feeling.

Everyone here has given really great advice. The only thing I have to say is, remember that you don't have to have the exact word count you originally wanted. If you cut it down to, say, 87k and it feels right, then please, don't feel obligated to cut it even more.

Word Counts and Limits

You didn't say how many words you went over, but 80,000 words for a sci-fi or fantasy novel is on the low side. On average, the word count is around 100,000. As for revising it, there's many extra words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes and possibly chapters that you can remove. It might seem like you need to keep many of these, but as you look at your manuscript, as a reader (agents and editors will view it from a business standpoint), there's much you can leave out and this will strengthen your work and editing/revising skills. Even if you sent it in and the agent loved it, you'd still have to make a revision, as likely told by the editor. There's chapters that I've deleted then moved the important/relevant information to another chapter and it transitioned well. Remember these things when editing and revising.

Congrats on finishing! It's a great feeling, isn't it?

My best advice would be to give it some time. A week, maybe a few weeks. Start something else, or write a short story in the meantime. When you come back, you'll find things to cut.

Good luck!

marianaz said:

MM- I'm worried about the word count b/c it's my first novel and it's usually harder to pitch it to agents without a track record. I don't want to reduce my chances of finding an agent b/c they are intimidated by the word count. Thanks for the advice though. It's nice to know there are so many ways to cut the novel short.

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A friend of mine queried a YA paranormal book that was 115,000 words and she landed requests from 5 top agents. It can be done. There's also a little more leeway with fantasy and SF as compared to contemporary. Mine's a few words shy of 81,000 so I'm going to query it at 80,000 just to be safe. This is the upper limit according to Kate Testerman (yesterday's post):

Seriously, what is with all these 120,000 word YA novels? Too long, people! Too long! Yes, it’s true that giant YA novels are being published, but please consider them the exception, not the rule. Let’s consider 80,000 words around the top end of YA, shall we? Not that I would automatically decline a query for an excessive word count, but it could be a hatch mark in the “con” column.

Good luck with the reduction. Just look at it with an open mind. Good beta readers will tell you (especially if you ask) where the pace slowed down and they lost interest. But make sure they tell you when the pace was great, too.

Sage said:

Just a note that this is actually a 3-month old thread.

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Wow, that would have saved me time if I had paid attention to this comment. Usually I'm so good at checking out the thread date first.