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.Ħ. This is astonishingly effective, saving thousands of words. Instead of stretching it over one week, squeeze it into one afternoon. Instead of spanning a decade, make it happen in a single year. Most sequels need to be no longer than a paragraph. If you've used the “Scene & Sequel” method of structuring, shrink the sequels. Excessive backstory can often be found in the first few chapters.Ĥ. Replace the backstory scenes with single-sentence summaries of what had happened. The reader needs to know less backstory than you think. Whenever the plot halts to give the reader a view of what happened in the past, cut that. These unnecessary journeys can often be found at the beginnings of chapters.ģ. 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.
Whenever your PoV spends time getting to a place - whether he's walking, driving, riding or flying - cut it.
You may expect this to hurt, but it's surprisingly painless, and the result is tight and exciting.Ģ. Condense all the thoughts in that scene into two sentences. Whenever your PoV spends a lot of time thinking, pondering, wondering, assessing, evaluating, remembering, reminiscing, musing and emoting, cut the lot. Some are soft options, others require you to cut into the flesh.ġ. If your story or novel is too long and you need to bring the wordcount down, try one or several of these techniques.
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