It's a Small World
Some places are smaller than others. I have a medium to large home, lots of space for me and the kiddies to collect clutter and leave crap lying about. Other people aren't so lucky. They need to utilize every last molecule of space. Really make it count.
Take Gary Chang, and architect from Hong Kong, for instance.
Now that's the best use for space I've ever seen, seriously. Wow.
I guess that makes us architects of writing. I mean, we need to get a whole lot accomplished in our words. Sometimes more than a publisher gives us space for. So we have to make our words aerodynamic and ergonomically correct.
With my first novel, I didn't worry about words, wrote till my fingers were like to fall off. (They didn't, don't worry). I ended up with a simple romance that was, take a breath people...175,000 words. Holy yikes is right. After getting acquainted with some great websites for writers, I tightened that baby down to about 110k. Then I stuffed it into the bottom drawer of Word. It was my first, after all, best to be buried and forgotten after something better came along.
Something better, the current WiP, stands "finished" at about 90k. This one is a romantic suspense, and has triple the good stuff going on that the first did. But, I made every word count. Or tried my damndest too, at least. Got rid of plenty of pesky had's and that's, ohhh, and lots and lots of those hellish road pavers we writers refer to as adverbs. But, mostly I worked my butt off to use strong verbs and Keep It Simple (I'm not stupid - okay, whose the joker snickering in the back row...).
So how do you KIS (you're not stupid either, my good friends)?
Comments
I've always been boggled at folks like yourself who just bang out 150-300,000 words on their first go-round. I'm lucky if I can average 75-80k. Don't know what that means about me...
Now I know better, and I still have word count issues. I tend to throw in every subplot and twist I can think of, and then I have to weed it out during revision. I also write lots of stutter words too, like "a little" and "just" and "that".
When you get rid of all of the flab, the effect is apparent. Thanks for the great post!
Summer - I don't know, my house feels like 10k sq ft when I clean, lol.
I'd say it means you make every word count ;)
Stina - That is exactly the same boat I'm in, girl. I get it!
Elizabeth - Flab, what a great way to put it!
I try to keep it simple, I'm not sure if I succeed. Mostly by cutting out background history as much as possible.
Great job with the new romantic suspense! Sounds awesome :)
With my first novel I had a massive word count that I gradually tightened. I'm so glad I went through that because it taught me the value of space and gave me the ruthlessness to cut out anything that wasn't necessary.
Jai
My first works wasn't overlong, but I had to tighten up the dialogue a bit.