“Trim the words but keep the story.” – Martha Reed
This
month I enjoyed a challenging writing craft exercise. Answering an open call
for a new crime fiction anthology, I decided to take a break from my current
novel-length WIP (work-in-progress) and try my hand at quickly drafting
something shorter.
The
anthology’s stated eligibility guidelines included a maximum threshold of five
thousand words. Usually, my short fiction drafts run short, and then I flesh out the story as needed from there. Imagine my
surprise when I sat back and discovered that my new draft manuscript clocked in
at six thousand words.
Yikes! And
this was my short story in its roughest form. Somehow I needed to delete almost twenty percent.
I found the idea of deleting one thousand words daunting. How did
I ‘kill my darlings’ and do it?
1.
The setting and the reason the characters were gathering was
to attend a family wedding. The introductory paragraphs included a description
of the protagonist’s trip to get to the wedding and what she saw as she
approached the venue. First, I deleted all of that travel description. As the
writer, I needed to know the wedding details, but it was unnecessary information for
the reader. With this ruthless edit, I dropped the reader straight into the
action. Then, in a final desperate act, I deleted the bride. (Never fear, I
sent Callie to Aruba to enjoy her honeymoon.)
2.
Next, I deleted other unnecessary characters (apologies to
Benton Overbeck and the Big House staff members). I needed to shut my eyes to
make this edit because I adored reading about these funny and oddball people. I
had spent hours having fun imagining them and the trouble they were getting
into, especially the hired bagpiper who got caught stealing Junior Senior’s Cuban
cigars. In the end, calling the wedding venue ‘a madhouse’ was all the
description that the story really needed.
3. I ruthlessly
deleted descriptive adjectives. In the original manuscript I created a ‘cozy
reading nook’ which included a tasseled silk-upholstered chaise longue plush
with needlepointed pillows, a marble fireplace filled with sweet pine logs
ready for a rare but chilly Florida winter night, and a Tiffany stained-glass floor
lamp. I kept the chaise longue because my protagonist needed something to sit
on, but bye-bye Italian marble fireplace and the Tiffany dragonfly lamp.
In the
end, after too many delicious pots of coffee and three intensely satisfying
days of joyful editing, I hit the mark at 4,998 words.
How
about you? Share your editing tricks for trimming those pesky and unnecessary
words.
And, in case you’re interested, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Pittsburgh Sisters in Crime is hosting an open call for short crime fiction for “Gold Bridges, Dark Rivers,” our new anthology. Visit our website www.pghsinc.com for the eligibility guidelines, sharpen your pencils, and good luck!
