- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
- Messages
- 62
- Reaction score
- 6
- Location
- Central Illinois
- Website
- kevinleeswaim.blogspot.com
've decided to publish my first novel via CreateSpace. Since I'm cheap, I'm doing my own editing. Wow, thinking like an editor sure changes the way I think about writing.
It's amazing how much I can cut. I started with 107,000 words and cut it down to 91,000. Not only is it shorter, but it reads better. Cutting that much had a dramatic difference in the pacing. It made my sentence structure tighter. I had some bad habits that are quickly fading, thank goodness. I hope this carries on to my next work, so I can do more of it when I'm writing and less at the editing stage.
Finally, I've learned you can cut too much. I tried for a thriller/action novel as filtered through Elmore Leonard, and wound up having to add some stuff back in. I'd cut to the bone in places, and there wasn't enough there to carry the story. P. Elrod helped in that regard, where she pointed out that it wasn't a screenplay. I owe her for that.
Hopefully I'll have it completed and up for sale in the next 2-3 weeks, and then I guess I'll find out what paying customers think.
I'm sure I'll sell tens of copies....
It's amazing how much I can cut. I started with 107,000 words and cut it down to 91,000. Not only is it shorter, but it reads better. Cutting that much had a dramatic difference in the pacing. It made my sentence structure tighter. I had some bad habits that are quickly fading, thank goodness. I hope this carries on to my next work, so I can do more of it when I'm writing and less at the editing stage.
Finally, I've learned you can cut too much. I tried for a thriller/action novel as filtered through Elmore Leonard, and wound up having to add some stuff back in. I'd cut to the bone in places, and there wasn't enough there to carry the story. P. Elrod helped in that regard, where she pointed out that it wasn't a screenplay. I owe her for that.
Hopefully I'll have it completed and up for sale in the next 2-3 weeks, and then I guess I'll find out what paying customers think.
I'm sure I'll sell tens of copies....