Cutting Words from Your Writing

 

The women in my online writing group request help in cutting words almost more than anything else. Many are writing toward a publication or a contest that sets a specific word count. When you are 100- 200 or more words over that number, something must be done.

Stephen King tells us to get rid of every ounce of excess fat. He knows from experience that this is not easy, that it hurts. 

Does cutting 200 words from your story or essay sound impossible? At first, it might seem so, but it's surprisingly easy to slash and slice when you do an edit. I've done it so I know others can, too.

One thing we writers often do is to add unnecessary words--ones like really, usually, even so, and others. There are lists of those unnecessary words. Look for them with a search engine. Many are words we often 'toss in' when we are speaking to someone. When writing, get rid of them.

Another way to cut is to look for sentences with something like this:  I came to a decision... Change it to I decided... Four words gone! That doesn't sound like very many, but take away four here, four there, and it adds up. 

Limit adjectives. Some writers use two or three for one noun. That's a lot for one little noun to bear. One works fine, and that one may make a bigger impression than if you used two or three. You could begin to sound gushy. 

Get rid of adverbs. They describe verbs and, if used, you end up telling rather than showing. Writers often use them to make passive verbs look better. I believe Stephen King also said something about the road to Hell being paved with adverbs. That's not a word for word for word quote. If you find a list of unnecessary words to cut, you'll discover that many are adverbs. 

Long, convoluted sentences can almost always be cut in some way. When a sentence is too long, it can overwhelm the reader to the point that they miss the message in the sentence. Cut as much as possible without losing the meaning. I often find it better to divide those long sentences into two separate ones It doesn't help you cut words but does help with clarity.

'He jumps over the fence that borders the park grounds.' What word can you do without in this sentence? Remove 'that' and change 'borders' to 'bordering' and 'that' is gone. Write 'The poem that I wrote won first prize.' Change it to 'The poem I wrote won first.' I cut 'that' and also 'prize' because 'that' is unnecessary to the meaning of the sentence, and saying 'first' indicates 'first prize.' Try going through a story in your files and circle all the 'that' words. Then go back and see how many of them can be cut without losing the meaning of the sentence. 

Don't introduce a sentence with phrases like:  Instead of, With the possible exception of, The reason why. Those are added words. Without them, the meaning of the sentence is still the same. Some writers use them for emphasis or to help clarify what the main part of the sentence tells us. They are not necessary in most cases.

In sentences where you begin with 'I think' 'I feel' or, 'I believe', those introductory words to the sentence are not needed. If you say 'I believe that cows are the sweetest farm animal.' and change to 'Cows are the sweetest farm animal.' nothing is lost except those two words at the beginning. 

Use active verb forms instead of ones like: Tommy was running to catch his buddies. Say: Tommy ran to his buddies. You've cut three words.

You can cut more words here and there with thought. Oops! I could have eliminated 'here and there' and maybe even 'with thought.' 

One big way to reduce your word count is to look for sections where you have repeated the same thought twice, even if using different words. Some writers do it to make sure their reader understands the point. We need to give our readers credit for being able to decipher what point we are making. Say it once, then cut the rest. You can delete whole paragraphs if one is redundant. 

You will find many ways to cut words when you edit. What seems a near-impossible job turns out to be easier than feared. The benefit comes in the form of stronger writing. 

Writers--Tight is Right

 

When we look at a blank page, be it in a book to use for journaling or on our computer screen, we can write anything we want to. And any way. It's our choice. No holds barred. But wait...

We do have to stay within certain perimeters if we want to see our work published. Editors set word counts. They tell us to send a 'story' not an 'essay' or they tell us what we send must be fiction, or sometimes true. They also don't want writers rambling all over the page. Instead, we're urged to 'write tight.' So many guidelines that fence us in a bit.

To be published, we must follow those rules set by the people who have the final say as to whether your story will be seen by the public or not. 

Let's look at the art of writing tight. Our aim in anything we write is to grab the reader's attention and keep it. If we ramble like a herd of cows on the prairie searching for ever-sweeter grass, we're going to lose our reader in a hurry. 

Master the following and you'll never have a problem being told to write tighter:

1. Eliminate unnecessary words like just, really, quite, very. They do nothing but take up space. 
2. Use active verbs to replace the 'to be' passives like was, is, had been, are. To do this, you may have to flip the order of the sentence. Don't just try to insert the active verb where you had the passive one. It doesn't always work.
3. Practice writing flash fiction; enter flash fiction contests. You want to try the ones that ask for 100 to 300 words, or even less. There can be no extras in this kind of writing. 
4. Delete words wherever you can. If your max word count is 1200, and you have 1357 words, don't despair. You can cut those extra words and not lose anything in your story. I've done it many times, and you can, too. Look for ways to reword a sentence so that it uses fewer words but still gets the same idea across. Cut those unnecessary words. Do all the things mentioned in this list, and you'll be surprised at how many words you can cut. 
5. Get rid of dialog tags by using merely an action to show who spoke. Jane slammed the book on the table. "I will not read anything this woman writes again!" There is no need for the usual 'she said' It's perfectly clear who said it.
6. Use clear and to the point sentences. Don't embellish with lots of adjectives and adverbs.
7. Read a lot of poetry. Why? Poets are masterful in economizing on words. Note how they write and try it in your prose.

Can you write 'too tight?' Yes, and you want to be careful that you don't cut down and out so many things that you've lost your story and will surely lose your readers. 

Keep in mind that 'tight is right.'

Writing Shorter Is Better But How Do You Do It?

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

- Henry David Thoreau

The author of Walden gives us a piece of advice that writers today might heed. Henry David Thoreau wrote his book about an experiment of living in natural surroundings more than 150 years ago. I ran across the quote above and felt it worth taking a closer look. What I found in my research was a scathing look at the way Mr. Thoreau writes. It makes one wonder if he listened to his own words about writing shorter, or writing 'tight' as we might say today. 

Here is the assessment of Ken Kifer, who was an admirer of Thoreau and Walden. He seems to be able to separate what he likes and what he doesn't quite well with the quote below. 

Walden is a difficult book to read for three reasons: First, it was written by a gifted writer who uses surgically precise language, extended, allegorical metaphors, long and complex paragraphs and sentences, and vivid, detailed, and insightful descriptions. Thoreau does not hesitate to use metaphors, allusions, understatement, hyperbole, personification, irony, satire, metonymy,synecdoche, and oxymorons, and he can shift from a scientific to a transcendental point of view in mid-sentence. Second, its logic is based on a different understanding of life, quite contrary to what most people would call common sense. Ironically, this logic is based on what most people say they believe. Thoreau, recognizing this, fills Walden with sarcasm, paradoxes, and double entendres. He likes to tease, challenge, and even fool his readers. And third, quite often any words would be inadequate at expressing many of Thoreau's non-verbal insights into truth. Thoreau must use non-literal language to express these notions, and the reader must reach out to understand.— Ken Kifer^[11]

Let's go back to the original quote. Thoreau suggests that short, tight writing is not an easy task for the writer. I now that's true and so do you. So often, the writers in my critique group submit a piece and then say that they know it is too long and they need help in cutting it to the maximum amount of words an editor is calling for. 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could put all the words into a box, shake it up and pour them out with the cuts made for us? If you ever find that writing fairy who can do this, let me know.

Otherwise, we all need to spend time editing our work and cutting vast amounts to make a better end product. We need to:

1. Look for redundancy: We often write two sentences that say basically the same thing with different words to make a point. We want the reader to be sure to 'get it.' Instead, they might be a bit miffed that you, the writer, didn't give them enough credit for 'getting it' in the first place. 

2. Strike unnecessary words: Words, or phrases, like really, very, just, only, in other words, for the most part do not add anything to your sentence. They tend to clutter what could be a perfectly good sentence on its own. Simple is best in all things.

3. Stop hammering a point: Make your point and then move on. Don't overstate your case. This falls under redundancy but I've seen writers who write an entire paragraph about one thing, then write another. Say it once and move on.

4. Overuse of adjectives: Newer writres tend to do this. They want to bring an image to the reader but tossing a bunch of adjectives into the air and letting them land wherever is not the best way to do this. Too many adjectives to describe one poor little noun makes for overwriting in a big way. 

5. Too many adverbs: Adverbs modify verbs. Writers sometimes think that using them on a regular basis helps them show the reader what is happening. An occasional adverb is alright but use them too often and the reader becomes tired.

6. Get rid of the superfluous:  A wise editor I once knew hammered this point with her students. She taught that anything that does not move the story along should be dumped. Every single sentence should have a reason to be in your story. If it doesn't, slash it. We all tend to add these little extras that really have no bearing on the story action. We like them but they become distracting. 

There are more ways to cut your first drafts and to tighten your writing but the ones above are enough to consider for now. If you can work on these six, you'll find that your writing has moved to a new level. Mr. Thoreau is right when he says that writing a piece shorter will take a long time. You come out a winner in the end if you heed his advice.  

Editing Unnecessary Words

Actually, it's not OK to write garbage, but the point here is well-said. Last night, I critiqued a blog post for a member of my writers group. She had a lot of good things to say about her subject matter, but the piece needed editing. It was a first draft which she asked others to read and suggest changes.

She used many unnecessary words, mainly because she wrote in the way we think or speak on a daily basis. We chatter, adding all kinds of phrases and words that contribute little to the main theme of what we're trying to say. My friend is not alone in doing this. It's a common failing and one writers need to address in every story or article they write. Our writing needs to be far more concise than our conversation skills. 

If we add needless words like salt and pepper on a fried egg, the reader can lose subject matter. They have to dig through those additions to find the meat of the story. Some may give up and quit reading.

1.  What are some unnecessary words that can be eliminated? Check the short list below:

• practically
• actually
• sort of
• kind of
• particular
• generally
• really

2.  One more way to eliminate an unneeded word: If you write a sentence using that before a noun, your sentence loses nothing by cutting it. Example below:

OK:  This is the hotel that Donald Trump built.

Better:  This is the hotel Donald Trump built.

OK:  I loved the dress that you wore to the prom

Better:  I love the dress you wore to the prom.

3.  Don't try for long descriptive sentences when a short one will get the idea across. Yes, there are times we all like to write prose like a poet, but too much of it becomes fodder for those unnecessary word critiques.

In the early days of my writing, I claimed the title of Queen of Unnecessary Words. Thanks to some good critiquers, I soon learned to tighten my writing by eliminating words that had no bearing on the subject. Doing this resulted in a more professional piece that proved easier to read and understand.  Guess what? When I edited this post, I removed a good many of those words that were not needed.

What I've listed above is only a partial list of the unnecessary word syndrome. There are many others. Google 'unnecessary words in writing' to find more detailed articles. When you edit your work, train yourself to look for those words that can be cut. It will take some time but you'll find it easier with practice.