Re: word limits and revision

Cyli wrote:

On 28 Apr 2007 13:07:59 -0700, Carole McDonnell
<scifiwritir@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Apr 26, 11:43?pm, Lucy Kemnitzer <rita...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There are markets for shorts that really truly don't want anything
over 4K words. his is not a relative limit, but a hard limit.
have shorts which are under 5K words. 'm thinking about taking the
big pruning shears to them, but they're stories I like as they are
and >> I wonder if that kind of treatment will hurt them.
ut currently
they're not finding a home, which hurts them more, right?

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

Lucy Kemnitzer
still

I am totally convinced that most stories can be cut without harming
them too much. I remember seeing something on the internet -- i
forget where-- which gave hints on how to shorten a piece without
killing it. Look around. -Carole


When I was a kid there were still the Reader's Digest Condensed books
around. They'd be a hardcover volume that now would fit one Steven
King novel, but back then would have held two unabridged regular
novels and maybe a novella or two. They'd have something like four or
five books in there. When I read a book of theirs that I'd read in
the full version, I'd be looking for the cuts. Never noticed any. I
never had the opportunity (or at least never made the opportunity) to
do a side by side, though.

The Condensed books are still around.

For a brief time, they included the Condensed Bible.

--
Dan Goodman
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