The Saga Continues- Part II

I have not kept up with my blog as much as I would like to, but only because I have been spending an inordinate amount of time editing my novel. As of today, I have about 55,300 words edited. What this means is that I have taken away and added paragraphs and pages, (it was heartbreaking discarding those brilliant sections that had little to do with the story), found incorrect punctuation, and sentences where I used one word when I meant to use another. However, my biggest chore during this edit is to tighten those sentences up.

What does sentence-tightening entail? It means using a whole lot less words to convey my meaning. This is not from my novel, but it is a great example:

Wordy: She went to the car, opened the door, and got into the driver’s seat.

Better: She slid into the driver’s seat.

Such a short simple sentence to convey the same meaning.

Words are important in writing, because every genre of short story of novel has a word count range. In order to increase our chances of selling our work, we must follow the publisher guidelines. We must make every single word count.

I find editing like eating healthy and exercising. If I eat the right foods and run four times a week, I get the physical results I want. Well, if I write tight and make every single word count, then I know I have turned out the best product I can. Perhaps the next step will be to catch an agent’s eye, with the grand finale being publication.

Now, it’s time to go for my run and then edit my novel. Happy writing all!