This most recent edit has brought a few crucial things about my own writing into sharp focus for me. I thank my (former?) agent for this, who worked with me through three serious edits on another story. She pointed out that I have a nasty tendency to repeat things and overdo it on excess description. At first, I thought this was somewhat bogus, but then realized she was right on. I thought it was because this was an older story that I rewrote several years later, but now I'm editing a story I wrote more recently (last year) and I notice the same kinds of problems. I like words, I like description, and when I write, I often come up with three or four different ways to say the same thing, so it's hard to decide which one to keep in the story. Back when I used to hand write my stories, if I couldn't decide between two or three words, I included all of them and just separated them with a bold line. Apparently, I still do this without realizing it, only in a slightly different way. I've noticed that I craft two or three sentences in a paragraph or a page that express the same basic ideas. They're all awesome (if I do say so myself, haha), but repetitive. And I do it a lot. Perhaps there's a support group. Hello, my name is Tess, and I can't shut the hell up, even in writing. I need help...
Maybe I haven't fully expressed how out of hand this tendency has gotten. When I started editing the current novel, it was around 127k words and 415 double spaced pages. Way too long. I'm currently on page 256 and have cut 50 pages and 19 thousand words worth of repetitive crap and unnecessary description. And I'm not done yet. Like I said, I have a problem. But, isn't the first step admitting it? Now I just need to go through the other novels I have waiting for edits/reworking (see! I'm doing it again!). I'll go slowly, though. I wouldn't want to overload on too much excitement all at once...
No comments:
Post a Comment