I have been progressing well over the past few days. I am in Chapter Three and have already dropped over 6,800 words. According to the formula I set up in Excel, at this rate I should easily reduce the novel down to 154,000-words. That is still too much for a first novel (that is what I am reading, anyway), but it only leaves about 30 or 40 thousand words to cut instead of 100 thousand.
I'm thinking I may not need to significantly reduce the novel size again when I am done with this go through. Not only am I finding redundancy, but I am also dropping some of the sub-plots. I don't like doing that, but the story must be reduced. I suppose if I cut enough out I might have the makings for another storyline, which follows a separate thread from Madatar's battle with Shatahar and Zenophone. Whatever. For now, things are progressing.
Sailors on the Sea
Monday, November 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You're amazing! My problem is always in getting enough words out, not in reducing them.
Don't you just love Excel?
Don't you just love Excel?
I do. I have actually used Excel to write stories. I have dozens of Excel files containing background for The Great Sea. I never got much into making graphs and such, but there was a time I considered myself an Excel expert. But that seems like an eternity now.
My problem is always in getting enough words out, not in reducing them.
I have periods where I cannot write anything. That is when I invest inordinate amounts of time on data, such as assigning housing to everyone. Then the muse comes to visit and I can't stop writing. But it's a messy kind of writing, and I can spend weeks cutting it down. I usually do.
As to how I am able to cut this work so quickly, I tend to restate myself often, both in speech and in writing. Also, some of my characters are finding themselves on the cutting room floor. That's a pity.
Post a Comment