For me, cutting words and pages have always seemed a huge part of the revision stage, even before I was published. I guess that’s just how I write. Long first drafts.
Have I mentioned that I’m one of six kids? I’m # 5 of 6, which means there were more kids before me than after. Older siblings who were always talking, telling me what to do, getting our parents attention. Not that I don’t love each and every one, of course. 😉
Anyway that’s my excuse for being verbose—on paper. In person I tend to be rather quiet actually. I’ve had a life time of listening practice in a family of talkers. On paper I’m not competing with louder, older, more experienced voices. And the paper is always there, waiting for me to speak.
Isn’t it interesting how childhood experiences still affect someone as old as I am?
Or maybe I just haven’t figured out yet how to be as succinct as the market demands—at least not in the first draft.
So far, I’ve cut nearly ten pages from the first 100 of the manuscript. That’s almost 10%! Actually I don’t expect to keep up this percentage, because it’s mainly the first segment I’m trying to move along. Once I have my hero and heroine together, I’ll probably be adding pages. When the main characters are together things tend to be easier to write and the most fun to read, so I’m looking forward to that.
I remember when I was younger, how hard it was to cut pages I thought held some nugget of wisdom, wit or romance. I’d try justifying each and every word if it had a certain ring to it. Now I don’t even flinch.
Although someone was telling me about starting an “out take” file and expanding that into a file for a website. Now that has some definite possibilities…
Personally, that’s something I liked about Pieces of Silver and Remember Me. They seemed a little longer than many other historicals on the market. I liked that I got to know the story in more deatil and it took me longer to finish. More reading pleasure for my money.
Sometimes when I read a book, I feel like the scenes were inserted into a fast paced format and even though certain elements may be fresh, the book as a whole feels like I’ve read it before. I know not everyone can get though the first hundred pages of Austen or Bronte until the story really gets started, but I don’t think today’s readers need non-stop action to keep them interested either.
So it’s probably good I’m not an editor because I would be telling authors to make their books longer not shorter. If the story is good, I don’t want to rush through it. I guess the best books walk a fine line between the two extremes.
Thinking of your other historicals, will there be any sequels after Remember Me? It seemed like Penny was gearing up for a book of her own and maybe Larissa’s sister too? And I need to know more about David and Liesel. I think they’re my favorite couple out of your books so far.
Hi Sarah,
You would probably have loved the first draft of the book I’ll be rewriting next – originally it was 150,000 words. That’s nearly Russian-literature length! Actually I think the shorter books nowadays are a result of our society, how we take everything in quicker sound bytes between the Internet and news stories. Our attention span, as a society, seems to have diminished since the days of Austen and Bronte. Speaking of Bronte, my car book is Jane Eyre, which I’m thoroughly enjoying revisiting.
Unfortunately I don’t have any future books in mind for Pieces of Silver and Remember Me. But I never say never, so who knows what the future may hold. Right now, once I finish this current three book series that has the same time setting, I’ll probably be itching to investigate a new time period, or do another contemporary.
Thanks for being interested in those characters, though! Whenever I talk about them I get that feeling of visiting with old friends.