The magic of writing happens with the first draft. The art happens in the revisions. It’s the art that makes it so darn hard. And you’ve perfectly described the conundrum every writer faces in turning out a polished piece that fits into allotted space. Great post and food for my writerly soul.
My first novel came in at a little over 140,000 words. The editor I met said most publishers wouldn't look at anything over 100,000. I hacked and whacked and the published version is around 90,000. But killing those darlings was a major enterprise. Whole scenes had to go.
Now you're committed to giving us an update on the story. We'll be on pins and needles til we know. Also, folks, I will attest she often does says that. Just the other day I was making a shopping list and asked if we needed eggs. Martine's response: Did you know stories and books have a natural length?
This description of shortening your first draft by 1/3 speaks so clearly to me, Martine. I'm doing much the same thing right now with my book-length WIP. I feel the pain (the costs) of the sharper, higher-precision cuts. I hope yours resulted in a story that gets into the anthology ( ;
Ah thanks! Good luck with the book cuts, I hope it's not 30% though, lol. I had to cut 10K out of an 85K novel, but it didn't feel as painful as this one. After all, the bigger the manuscript, the more playing room you have.
Working to get 120K down below 100K, so 1/5 instead of 1/3. I've passed it on to the developmental editor who helped me with my first manuscript. Hoping she finds a way without causing too much pain.
This post spoke to me so much as I just had to do the same thing! Cut, rewrite, slash, chip, resew the words to keep old meanings and discover new ones. After cutting 450 words in two days, and editing and polishing, I'm happy with the results. My short story goes out today! Thanks, Martine!
I love the challenge of cutting a piece, but once I had to make massive cuts in a novel. This was a mystery with Walker and the editor wanted me to axe 75-100 pp. because the book was "too expensive to publish." I had a month to get it done. I made the cuts. Was it a better book? Maybe. But whatever the case, I got to use a good chunk of the cuts in the next mystery which I made sure would be shorter. :-)
That is indeed massive, and in a mystery ... where things tend to fit together in a logical fashion. Great that you could use it for another project, but it must have been a head scratcher. No wonder it took a month.
Well, the deadline was a month, which was terrifying at first. I would have preferred more time, but I'm a trooper and I buckled down to the work without cutting clues or any major plot points.
Great post, Martine. I’ve had similar challenges and like to think the piece is better with the chopping, but it’s not a one size fits all situation, ever. As always, your mileage may vary.
Usually when you have to trim a couple hundred words, the story benefits from it. In this case I had to go from 7100 to 5000 and that can easily turn into a bloody butchering fest...
Good to know for future reference. My mystery/ghost story appeared in Bewildering Stories. My college writing mentor and I are still in touch and she thinks it's one of the best stories I've written in my entire career. http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue987/lost_london1.html
I’m not sure. I think I like the longer one, but if the mag rejects my shorter version, I’ll go back into the long one and work at it a bit more. Some things can be tightened up, but not a 2000 words chop, though!
Great post Martine. I'm just starting to submit to some journals and I agree, each story has a flow and it's hard to tailor them to certain parameters and word count. It is at least encouraging to me that you were able to "prune" your story and still keep much of the original intent. Thank you for this!
Martine, great post and man does this ring a bell. In fact, several bells. Actually, a Sunday morning cacophony of bells. I have had many occasions down through the years where I attempted to meet a word count limitation and just totally ruined a story, to the point where I didn't even submit. Other times, when it was a more feasible target to hit, I made the necessary cuts, killed the darlings and as you mentioned it worked out okay. It's a dilemma sometimes, hard choices. Btw, I always, always save the longer drafts, no matter what, haha. - Jim
The coolest thing about a collection is seeing the stories in relation to one another. Back in the day, I actually had a New York editor work with me for seven months to get the order of my first collection right and do the appropriate cuts (and additions!). I can't imagine an editor taking that kind of time today.
The magic of writing happens with the first draft. The art happens in the revisions. It’s the art that makes it so darn hard. And you’ve perfectly described the conundrum every writer faces in turning out a polished piece that fits into allotted space. Great post and food for my writerly soul.
Thanks Rebecca.
I save everything!
My first novel came in at a little over 140,000 words. The editor I met said most publishers wouldn't look at anything over 100,000. I hacked and whacked and the published version is around 90,000. But killing those darlings was a major enterprise. Whole scenes had to go.
That is indeed major. Hard to do. I hope you kept a file with the cuts, even if they’re never used again :)
Now you're committed to giving us an update on the story. We'll be on pins and needles til we know. Also, folks, I will attest she often does says that. Just the other day I was making a shopping list and asked if we needed eggs. Martine's response: Did you know stories and books have a natural length?
You'll be first to know!
This description of shortening your first draft by 1/3 speaks so clearly to me, Martine. I'm doing much the same thing right now with my book-length WIP. I feel the pain (the costs) of the sharper, higher-precision cuts. I hope yours resulted in a story that gets into the anthology ( ;
Ah thanks! Good luck with the book cuts, I hope it's not 30% though, lol. I had to cut 10K out of an 85K novel, but it didn't feel as painful as this one. After all, the bigger the manuscript, the more playing room you have.
Working to get 120K down below 100K, so 1/5 instead of 1/3. I've passed it on to the developmental editor who helped me with my first manuscript. Hoping she finds a way without causing too much pain.
This post spoke to me so much as I just had to do the same thing! Cut, rewrite, slash, chip, resew the words to keep old meanings and discover new ones. After cutting 450 words in two days, and editing and polishing, I'm happy with the results. My short story goes out today! Thanks, Martine!
It can be hard. Cross fingers on your story!
Thank you, Martine! Right back at you! :)
I love the challenge of cutting a piece, but once I had to make massive cuts in a novel. This was a mystery with Walker and the editor wanted me to axe 75-100 pp. because the book was "too expensive to publish." I had a month to get it done. I made the cuts. Was it a better book? Maybe. But whatever the case, I got to use a good chunk of the cuts in the next mystery which I made sure would be shorter. :-)
That is indeed massive, and in a mystery ... where things tend to fit together in a logical fashion. Great that you could use it for another project, but it must have been a head scratcher. No wonder it took a month.
Well, the deadline was a month, which was terrifying at first. I would have preferred more time, but I'm a trooper and I buckled down to the work without cutting clues or any major plot points.
Great post, Martine. I’ve had similar challenges and like to think the piece is better with the chopping, but it’s not a one size fits all situation, ever. As always, your mileage may vary.
Usually when you have to trim a couple hundred words, the story benefits from it. In this case I had to go from 7100 to 5000 and that can easily turn into a bloody butchering fest...
It's very hard to find lit mags that take anything over 5,000 words.
John Connor at Murderous Ink Press is one of the few who accepts up to 10,000. Some anthologies do too, but, yes, it's rare.
Good to know for future reference. My mystery/ghost story appeared in Bewildering Stories. My college writing mentor and I are still in touch and she thinks it's one of the best stories I've written in my entire career. http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue987/lost_london1.html
Wow. Recently, I had to trim down a story from 4700 to 4000 words and I thought I couldn’t do it. I did, lol.
Bravo! Do you like the story better now or feel the same?
I’m not sure. I think I like the longer one, but if the mag rejects my shorter version, I’ll go back into the long one and work at it a bit more. Some things can be tightened up, but not a 2000 words chop, though!
Great post Martine. I'm just starting to submit to some journals and I agree, each story has a flow and it's hard to tailor them to certain parameters and word count. It is at least encouraging to me that you were able to "prune" your story and still keep much of the original intent. Thank you for this!
Thanks for reading, Jim!
Martine, great post and man does this ring a bell. In fact, several bells. Actually, a Sunday morning cacophony of bells. I have had many occasions down through the years where I attempted to meet a word count limitation and just totally ruined a story, to the point where I didn't even submit. Other times, when it was a more feasible target to hit, I made the necessary cuts, killed the darlings and as you mentioned it worked out okay. It's a dilemma sometimes, hard choices. Btw, I always, always save the longer drafts, no matter what, haha. - Jim
That's why it's cool to publish a collection... you can expand, lol!
The coolest thing about a collection is seeing the stories in relation to one another. Back in the day, I actually had a New York editor work with me for seven months to get the order of my first collection right and do the appropriate cuts (and additions!). I can't imagine an editor taking that kind of time today.