… cut the fat!
I recently had the pleasure of joining other writers in a workshop environment. I find spending the day with other writers very nourishing. It’s therapeutic to connect with those who share similar interests and similar obstacles: beginners or not, we all share similar fears when it comes to hanging our wares for public viewing.
My interest in workshops is often not what we are doing, but the process of doing it. It’s interesting to observe what comes up for us as we approach a task.
In the process of exercise, we had to take a piece that we had written and edit it to half the word count. Being an editor I had no problem with this exercise, I see the opportunities and hidden jewels in this process every day, but many cannot, writers are often reluctant to remove the weeds from their work.
A university professor once warned students: “never fall in love with your work. If you haven’t rewritten at least three times, your work’s not ready.” Wise advice … a writers best work often lays hidden in early drafts. Like a treasure hunt, you must go looking.
Finding the treasure in our work involves a process called trimming the fat: we write big, then cut back.
Following is an excerpt from How the aliens from Alpha Centauri invaded my maths class and turned me into a writer: and how you can be one to, Harper Collins Publishers. Although this book is addressed to children, renowned author Jackie French, highlights in simplistic terms, one of the editing processes writers must follow when preparing for publication.
“When you make a story skinny you go through and cross out EVERYTHING that’s boring - because if it bores you, it’ll bore everyone else. You have to cross out any words that don’t say much. (Most verys and lovelys and awfuls don’t mean much - it’ s better to put down exactly what you mean. Instead of ‘it was a lovely day’ say the day was bright as chilly butter. Instead of saying ‘I felt awful’ say ‘my cheeks were so red I thought I’d frizzle up …’
Go through your story and look at EVERY word - and see if you can use a better one. (Not too complicated though, because if people have to stop when they’re reading and say to themselves ‘ah, that’s an interesting word’ the spell’s broken. Use simple words if you can.)
When you make your story skinny you have to go through and pull out every word you can get rid of - most ands and thens and wases.”
“When you know you’re going to go over your story and cross out everything that doesn’t work you can just start writing - and keep writing. Even if it’s rubbish it doesn’t matter because you can cross it out later. So you write fast …”
Write - trim - write - trim - write - trim: it’s like preparing a piece of clay for pottery: a whole lot of needing takes place before you build the vessel. Trimming our own fat can be difficult, this is why working with a book coach or editor can be very valuable for your work. An editors job is to go hunting for the jewels in a writers work - then polishing them till they shine!
If you require a book coach or editor email: editor@creativedetox.com
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