I have a 110K manuscript (110,600 Word tells me) and it seems it would be advantageous to make it under 100K. That's just 10%. Easy.
I've worked through a quarter of it, getting rid of unneeded words* (overused words like that, nearly, just & so; those awful -ly words and you know the ones), cutting duplication of things already said in a paragraph, unnecessary beats etc. and now it's down to 110,273 words!!
So line edits aren't going to work (I'm sure someone else could trim a substantial portion just using line edits, because it's always easier to do it to someone else's writing, but it's not working for me).
There is a scene I could probably cut, but it's short (just under 800 words) and I'd have to add in extra words elsewhere to account for it's absence, and I think it does serve a purpose, and I did cut another scene from that section on an earlier trim.
Also there are lots of short exchanges like:
"Find a uniform and get behind the fucking counter."
"Pretend to be a sandy? Isn't that illegal or something?"
"I think it comes in somewhere between flour bombs and armed fucking robbery."
"I've never bombed a flower."
"No? Not missing much."
that don't advance the plot. So they could go. And there are "wordbuilding infodumps" at the start of many of the scenes. So they could go.
And it's there that I start wondering what the point is? Once I start cutting away the bits that IMO add flavour, then it's going to end up bland. I was going to say "the bits I like" but that implies I'm keeping them just because I like them rather than because I think they add something, and I am aware of that. (I probably do it, but not ALL the time.)
I don't know why it's so long. In my head, it's the same amount of story as my other WIP (which is 55K). It's not a dense fantasy with sub-plots involving supporting characters and lots of POVs. Bah
*I used "nearly" 4 times. Shocking. I probably use probably too much though.
I've worked through a quarter of it, getting rid of unneeded words* (overused words like that, nearly, just & so; those awful -ly words and you know the ones), cutting duplication of things already said in a paragraph, unnecessary beats etc. and now it's down to 110,273 words!!
So line edits aren't going to work (I'm sure someone else could trim a substantial portion just using line edits, because it's always easier to do it to someone else's writing, but it's not working for me).
There is a scene I could probably cut, but it's short (just under 800 words) and I'd have to add in extra words elsewhere to account for it's absence, and I think it does serve a purpose, and I did cut another scene from that section on an earlier trim.
Also there are lots of short exchanges like:
"Find a uniform and get behind the fucking counter."
"Pretend to be a sandy? Isn't that illegal or something?"
"I think it comes in somewhere between flour bombs and armed fucking robbery."
"I've never bombed a flower."
"No? Not missing much."
that don't advance the plot. So they could go. And there are "wordbuilding infodumps" at the start of many of the scenes. So they could go.
And it's there that I start wondering what the point is? Once I start cutting away the bits that IMO add flavour, then it's going to end up bland. I was going to say "the bits I like" but that implies I'm keeping them just because I like them rather than because I think they add something, and I am aware of that. (I probably do it, but not ALL the time.)
I don't know why it's so long. In my head, it's the same amount of story as my other WIP (which is 55K). It's not a dense fantasy with sub-plots involving supporting characters and lots of POVs. Bah
*I used "nearly" 4 times. Shocking. I probably use probably too much though.
