Re: word limits and revision


"Sea Wasp" <seawaspObvious@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4633BB37.70201@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Carole McDonnell wrote:

I am totally convinced that most stories can be cut without harming
them too much.

There's "cut", and then there's "seriously cut".

20% cut is nontrivial. It's one word in five removed. It's reducing a
10,000 word story to 8,000 words.

I would not do that unless I, personally, thought that the story was
bloated and needed cutting to begin with.

Well, and there's cutting and improving, but there's also... Look, if you
took one of the short stories I wrote back when I was trying desperately to
break in by writing short stories, I'm sure you could find ways to cut it.
But that wouldn't turn it into a better short story; it would, at most, turn
it into a better plot outline. It wouldn't exactly be *harmed* by the cuts,
and it might be improved in some way, but it'd be no nearer reaching my
(then) eventual goal of publication, because it wouldn't be "improved" in
the ways it really *needed* improving to achieve that.

I did, eventually, get one of those early-early short stories published.
It's in "Book of Enchantments," and it's at least 30% *longer* than the
original version was, thanks to a bunch of perceptive recommendations by
Jane Yolen, who was my editor on that collection. Which just shows you.

Patricia C. Wrede


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... 10,000 word story to 8,000 words. ... bloated and needed cutting to begin with. ... Well, and there's cutting and improving, but there's also... ... break in by writing short stories, I'm sure you could find ways to cut it. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... took one of the short stories I wrote back when I was trying desperately ... break in by writing short stories, I'm sure you could find ways to cut ... the ways it really *needed* improving to achieve that. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)