Killing your darlings and cutting your words in half

Maybe my worst vice in writing is that I'm wordy. I've been learning a lot in freelancing for magazines, where I'm assigned 500 word articles and commonly have to cut my first draft in half, that I really can do it--I really can get across a lot of information in fewer words. But its' really hard. I probably get paid a mere few dollars an hour when you take into account how long I labor over cutting my articles down to the size required. But when it comes to my novel, I've not been constrained in that area--I write and write, with no thought to length. (I know I'll someday have to cut a lot, but it's not right now--I don't have a complete first draft yet.)

But the Christmas party of my writers group brought the challenge and opportunity for me to present an excerpt from my novel-in-progress. We were all to bring a selection Christmas-themed. I'd written, months ago, a holiday dinner scene where my main characters are hosting the holiday meal for the first time. I thought I'd easily print out that scene and be done. But no, it was over 4,000 words! I had to cut it down to 1500 at most so it'd be short enough for me to read aloud to the group. If you want to read it, the Christmas dinner excerpt is here.

I learned a few things.

1) I was amazed how much I cut, and how much I could cut--though it took many different sittings. On a particular day, I couldn't handle killing anymore of my darlings, as Hemingway called them, so I had to stop. I couldn't possibly imagine reading the scene without letting readers know the description of Tiffany's forehead scar, or hearing the anecdote about Ginny and nativity sets, or about how Ash confronts Ginny about her condescending comments to him during the dinner. Another day, I'd sit down with a less impassioned and attached mind, and cut a little more.

2) The cutting really did force me to pull out the focus of the scenes and helped me see some stuff wasn't necessary, or at least, was for another scene, but not necessary for this one. It made my writing better, sharper.

3) On the contrary, I learned sometimes that cutting a scene made the whole story less sharp, more muddled. I cut more than the chapter can really handle. I cut things that didn't matter for the excerpt reading, but now for the novel, I'll have to go back and add it back in to make sense of the whole storyline.

4) This wasn't a waste of time. It taught me a lot about how I'll need to cut my whole novel, shortening sentences, paragraphs, being less descriptive.

5) It was a waste of time in some instances--I now have to go back to previous drafts and add back in many details and even passages that the novel really needs. I saved many versions along the way, but none is the version I now know I need.


Articles I've published:

"Beyond the Gifts: How to get your kids to see past the materialism of the holidays" Smart magazine

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?

Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?