![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Unwriting
Had very little time/energy to do stuff with words this weekend, but I did indulge in the exercise of going through "Atacama" to see if could prune it to 1000 words (thus allowing it to hit a few markets it was previously too long for).
As you doubtless know, reducing wordcount is not my forte (most of my rewrites end up as expansions, sometimes significantly so). I wasn't sure I could get 1300 words down to 1000 (that's, what, a 23% cut - almost a quarter) without taking something significant out of the story, but after about five passes through, I managed to do it without losing any scenes. Some repetition, and some overly wordy sentences, were the first things to go. Each cut I was only getting 5-odd words clearde out, but I think I ended up with something that has just as much meaning to it (or very close), but is a little bit tighter.
Tiring work, though, and I'd hate to do it for longer pieces - my approach to longer works that need cutting is more to redesign the structure and then rewrite.
Anyway, I did that, and also polished £If We Were Briar Roses" (interestingly, nkocknig about 10% out of that, where I had expected to add words as well), so I have those to get out of the door soon. One reject in today (Strange Horizons).
Nothing else to report.
As you doubtless know, reducing wordcount is not my forte (most of my rewrites end up as expansions, sometimes significantly so). I wasn't sure I could get 1300 words down to 1000 (that's, what, a 23% cut - almost a quarter) without taking something significant out of the story, but after about five passes through, I managed to do it without losing any scenes. Some repetition, and some overly wordy sentences, were the first things to go. Each cut I was only getting 5-odd words clearde out, but I think I ended up with something that has just as much meaning to it (or very close), but is a little bit tighter.
Tiring work, though, and I'd hate to do it for longer pieces - my approach to longer works that need cutting is more to redesign the structure and then rewrite.
Anyway, I did that, and also polished £If We Were Briar Roses" (interestingly, nkocknig about 10% out of that, where I had expected to add words as well), so I have those to get out of the door soon. One reject in today (Strange Horizons).
Nothing else to report.
Comments