It?s been a little while since I gave you guys a Finders Keepers update, so here?s the skinny:
As I noted last month, I embarked on an ambitious quest to prune Finders Keepers down to size. Because the manuscript was a little long, I knew I had to cut some, and dealing with the realities of being a relative unknown (at this point) in the publishing world, I need to treat Finders Keepers like a song that?s not quite radio-friendly length. As Billy Joel said so spot on in [i]The Entertainer[/It?s been a little while since I gave you guys a Finders Keepers update, so here?s the skinny:
As I noted last month, I embarked on an ambitious quest to prune Finders Keepers down to size. Because the manuscript was a little long, I knew I had to cut some, and dealing with the realities of being a relative unknown (at this point) in the publishing world, I need to treat Finders Keepers like a song that?s not quite radio-friendly length. As Billy Joel said so spot on in [i]The Entertainer[/i], ?if you wanna have it, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05.?
And so it goes for me.
Thing is, how do I actually do the cutting? What?s the process for doing most successfully? As I noted in an earlier blog, I went through the entire Finders Keepers manuscript?in random order?twice, reading each once from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top. In doing so I managed to clip away a considerable amount of text?two words here, four there?and without trimming anything vital. That really got Finders Keepers nice and slim.
And now I?ve gone through the entire process again. I spent the last three weeks re-reading my already pruned version of Finders Keepers (again, reading each graph twice each) just make to sure I didn?t miss anything the first time around. And sure enough, I found more to cut. Again, I didn?t trim away anything major. All the chapters are still there, all the characters too. And I kept all the jokes that still made me laugh. What I did cut were just little bits and pieces I could live without.
It?s amazing how much there is to trim when I got down and dirty ruthless. There were multiple spots where I realized I used the same joke?or same joke structure?twice in one chapter, or even a single page, when only once was necessary. That allowed me at times to cut away 20 or 30 words in one shot, and sometimes multiple lines as well. At other times, I realized I had simply over-described a scene, and was able to cut an entire paragraph, as I was slowing down the momentum. And yet other times I had 10 lines of dialogue when the same exchange was just as effective?or funny?with five lines.
And much to my surprise, I really got into it. I challenged myself. How many words could I clip without interfering with the story I wanted to tell and in the way I wanted to tell it?
Here’s an example about one of the main characters, Theo Karnes:
The original text I had was:
[i]He couldn?t shake the feeling that someone might be after him, that he had a crazed stalker of his very own.[/i]
Here’s the new version:
[i]He couldn?t shake the feeling that someone might be stalking him.[/i]
I think you can see that the new version is just as effective, using only 11 words instead of 21. Also, the original version said [i]crazed stalker[/i]. What other kind of stalker is there? So [i]crazed[/i] isn’t necessary. And if Theo felt like he had a stalker, of course someone would be after him, so again, that wasn’t necessary. So here I was able to cut 10 words without sacrificing meaning. If I do this throughout the entire manuscript, which originally came in at more than 128,000 words, I think you can see how the total words to cut will add up.
So now that I?ve wrapped up my second round of pruning?I made notes by hand on page?I?ll spend the next week or so entering the changes directly onto the file.
Once that?s done, and the manuscript is leaner and meaner than ever, I will print out and re-read Finders Keepers straight through, but this time checking only for flow. No more pruning. I need to ensure that it reads as well as I intended now that the trimming is done. Did I over-trim? Did I get it right? Do I need to make any minor tweaks here or there?
After that, I?ll ship the finalized version off to the agent I?ve been dealing with, and then we?ll see how it goes from there. But I?ve gotta say, at this point I?m feeling really good about the progress.
This three-day weekend will give me a chance to get quite a bit done manuscript wise, so my plan is to knock out a nice big chunk by early next week. I?m sort of curious myself to see what the final tally will look like. Pruning the manuscript (twice) is one thing?and absolutely necessary?but making sure that it all holds together is something else entirely.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2008/01/20 07:51
