I have joined a critique group, which I attended for the first time last week. Thanks to the group’s suggestions, I’ve cut almost 2,000 words of the 8,200 word story they saw. I haven’t even started on the structural changes that will trim more.
The cuts I’ve made so far were mostly scenery and description–two items I usually have too little of, not too much. In trying to improve my narration skills, I went too far and included so much detail that it read like blocking notes in a stage script: “Pat moves down left, then crosses to center.” Worse, I describe everything Pat touches or looks at while he moves. Too much detail. Part of learning to include description will be learning what I can leave out.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Terry Odell // Jan 28, 2010 at 9:08 am
I still find it hard not to account for every waking (and often sleeping) moment of my characters’ days. I need to learn to leave out the mundane–that’s always first on my edit list. Does this advance the plot? Often it’s “no” but I also thing that writing it helps me understand the characters and what’s happening to them.
And having a crit group is great. I’m going to be looking for one when we move.
2 Sam // Jan 29, 2010 at 7:55 am
That makes sense–writing the extra business is part of character creation.
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