Re: word limits and revision

On Apr 29, 7:38 pm, Lucy Kemnitzer <rita...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:33:27 -0600, "Patricia C. Wrede"
<pwrede6...@xxxxxxx> seems to have said:







"Ben Crowell" <crowel...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46320cea$0$18864$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nicky wrote:
On Apr 27, 4:43 am, Lucy Kemnitzer <rita...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Would you cut nearly 20% of a story to fit into a word limit?

I don't know anything about shorts but in my opinion there are very few
stories
that wouldn't be improved by severe pruning.

I'm ornery, so I'll disagree. Usually when I revise a short story, I
find that what it needs is expansion. This may just be a function of
my own skills and methods, but what I tend to end up with as a first
draft is something that presents a lot of events, but doesn't make
the reader care enough about those events.

Different writers, different processes. Most of the writers I know
over-write (including me), but there are one or two who under-write. One of
the ones I know says her first drafts are like those dessicated
sponge-rubber dinosaur toys we had as kids, that you had to leave in water
overnight so that they'd swell up to their proper size, four or five times
what they started out as. Pruning is most *definitely* not indicated for
her work.

So you're one of the ones who under-writes. As long as you know that, you
can just take all the advice for over-writers (which is more common, since
there seem to be more of them) and just turn it on its head before you apply
it to your stuff. And, occasionally, remind people that not *everybody*
over-writes.

Since most of what I write is novel-length, most of what I write gets
longer and longer in revision until I'm nearly done, and then it gets
a lot shorter. Not all of what goes in during revision is what comes
out, though.

So my goal was to cut 1.3K from a 5.3K story (in other words,
actually, almost 25%). I'm not finished, but I've cut 500 words
(counted after additions, so I guess I cut more words than that). The
story is getting clearer, but I think mainly because I'm a better
writer than when I first wrote this story, and especially I'm better
at shorts than I used to be. This was never a short that wanted to be
a novel: it was always a short that knew what it was.

So I still don't know whether it will end up below 4K, but I'm pretty
sure it will end up better.

That sounds good. I hope you manage to place it. I think flaws tend
to be more obvious after a break anyway and it is easier to see the
wood for the trees.
I don't think I shuld ever send anything out immediatley because
that's when I think its good. If I wait a while until all the glow and
excitement of finishing it is
over, it is always transformed into something dreadful and in need of
improvement and if I wait long enough sometimes I can even see how.

Nicky


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... I don't know anything about shorts but in my opinion there are very few ... that wouldn't be improved by severe pruning. ... Different writers, different processes. ... over-write, but there are one or two who under-write. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... very few stories that wouldn't be improved by severe pruning. ... Different writers, different processes. ... over-write, but there are one or two who under-write. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... that wouldn't be improved by severe pruning. ... Different writers, different processes. ... over-write, but there are one or two who under-write. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: word limits and revision
    ... that wouldn't be improved by severe pruning. ... Different writers, different processes. ... the ones I know says her first drafts are like those dessicated ... I know this because any given story requires a certain balance in the ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)