{"id":27484,"date":"2023-08-31T03:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=27484"},"modified":"2023-08-30T05:35:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:35:21","slug":"my-rough-draft-is-way-too-long-now-what-by-daniel-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/31\/my-rough-draft-is-way-too-long-now-what-by-daniel-rice\/","title":{"rendered":"My Rough Draft Is Way Too Long! Now What? by Daniel Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"My<\/a>Let\u2019s welcome back Daniel Rice<\/a> as he shares with us \u201cMy Rough Draft Is Way Too Long! Now What?\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Have you ever encountered the issue of too many words in your rough draft?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have, more than once. I used to dread having to chop away the excess words.<\/p>\n

They represented subplots, nuance, world-building, telling details, etc. They were my imaginative thoughts, and I didn\u2019t want to sacrifice a single one.<\/p>\n

If that sounds like you<\/strong>, the best thing to do is rip off the Band-Aid.<\/p>\n

Cut, chop, and hack away at the editorial butcher block until all the fat is trimmed from the manuscript.<\/p>\n

The Issue<\/h2>\n

Most of this is a mindset issue.<\/p>\n

As writers,<\/strong> we typically love our work and the act of creating it. Otherwise, why would anyone spend dozens, scores, hundreds of hours bleeding their heart and soul into something?<\/p>\n

Especially when for many of us, the reward is very little beyond the satisfaction of a job well done.<\/p>\n

So tear off the bandage.<\/strong> Remember, those early drafts are meant to be edited and rewritten. That\u2019s the writer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

My Own Books<\/h2>\n

The first two books in The Allison Lee Chronicles came in at about 87,000 words, near the sweet spot for young adult fantasy.<\/p>\n

I edited the heck out of those books<\/strong>, but I didn\u2019t have to cut tens of thousands of words to reach the final word count.<\/p>\n

However, the rough draft of the third novel came in at nearly 130,000 words.<\/p>\n

Yikes! I had a monumental editorial job.<\/strong> I needed to butcher the manuscript.<\/p>\n

You might think cutting about 40,000 words from a draft is a painful process. In truth, it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

At least,<\/strong> not after I overcame the initial mental hurdle that I had set an enormous task for myself.<\/p>\n

So how did I go about chopping away those words?<\/p>\n

The High-Level Read-Through<\/h2>\n

First, I did a high-level read-through of the draft, using Word\u2019s comment function to note chapters and subplots that should be cut, consolidated, or built up.<\/p>\n

Next, I started cutting chapters and subplots.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I loved the writing or figured I might be making a mistake, I\u2019d paste the words into a separate file in case I needed to retrieve them later.<\/p>\n

In practice,<\/strong> I have never reconstituted chapters or subplots I have purposely cut.<\/p>\n

Once I\u2019ve cut away the excess, I switch to consolidation.<\/p>\n

The Consolidation<\/h2>\n

Believe me, when you need to sacrifice 40,000 words, the trick is to consolidate, consolidate, consolidate.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I combined as many as three chapters into one streamlined chapter.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key is to keep asking yourself if you\u2019re telling the tale in the most efficient way possible without sacrificing your voice and the overall drama of the storyline.<\/p>\n

This can be hard,<\/strong> especially for new writers. But that\u2019s okay. It becomes easier with practice.<\/p>\n

Just remember, at the end of the day, it\u2019s a mindset thing: the rough draft is meant to be edited and rewritten.<\/p>\n

Only once I\u2019m done with all the cutting and rewriting to trim back the word count will I fill in subplots and scenes that I felt were given short shrift in the rough draft.<\/p>\n

This can have the side effect of ballooning the word count.<\/strong> Hopefully not, but it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

If the story grows too much, you may need to consider dropping another subplot, but that\u2019s not a given.<\/p>\n

Paragraph and Sentence-Level Editing<\/h2>\n

Once all the scenes and subplots are shipshape, it\u2019s time to get down to the paragraph and sentence-level editing.<\/p>\n

This level of editing will often subtract a few thousand more words from the manuscript.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to cutting words, mindset is the key.<\/p>\n

Excess words aren\u2019t inherently bad, but they need to be cut. Chop off the fat. Restructure multiple chapters into streamlined ones. And finally, edit those sentences to as close to perfection as humanly possible.<\/p>\n

Ultimately,<\/strong> you might find you have a far better manuscript than you imagined possible.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/h2>\n