A Not So Secret Post #3

Phew! One more task is over. And I'm one step closer to finishing Witch Hollow series. I cut out 13.000 words, which makes the 3rd book 82.000 words. 

So what did I learn from cutting out 56.000 words from 3 books? You might think I learned to write better and edit longer before hitting the publish button, but I learned something else. Something more important. I learned to value my readers' time. You see, time is the most valuable thing in the world. And we all have to learn to use it the best way we can. And we also shouldn't waste other people's time. If we can give them the story on 100 pages, we better do it and stop filling our books with unnecessary stuff. And I don't just mean adverbs, adjectives, and some boring prose. I'm talking about stopping beating around the bush and going straight to the story. I learned that less is more. I will always keep it in mind. It's not about writing shorter books. No way, cause I love long books. It's about knowing exactly where your story is going and taking the reader there. Of course you may not know it when you're writing your first draft, but the final book shouldn't give your reader the impression that you were clueless or came up with the ending two hours before publishing the book.

And once again: delete the adverbs. Delete them! Delete them all! And remember: one adjective for one noun. There might be exceptions, but only a few times in one book. Kill them all! 

Also, if there are just two people talking, you don't have to say "he said, she said" every time. We know there are just two people talking. And it helps to make the book a bit shorter, without cutting out important stuff. 

I could write more, but as always I'm very tired and want to sleep, before starting to edit a 110.000-worded monster called Witch Hollow and the Spider Mistress. I'm afraid I might have made some typos in this blog post, but I'm typing on my tablet and it's already a pain in the.... So I'll just leave you with this short post and bid you good night. See you in a  few days. 

A Secret Post #2

I'm crazy. I'm a butcher. I might be a better writer.

I cut out 24.000 words from Witch Hollow and the Fountain Riddle. Wanna know what's the worst thing about it? I haven't deleted a single scene. And I still cut out 24.000 words. WHFR was 84.000 words before I began rewriting it. Today, it's 60.000. Another 50 pages are gone without a trace.

And again, what does it mean? That my book was filled with so much garbage I hardly made my way through the thicket of adverbs, adjectives, and unnecessary "telling instead of showing."

I feel much better now. Like I've done something very important. And I am also very, very tired. But there's Witch Hollow and the Dryad Princess, and I need to go through it too :((( 

WHDP is 95.000 words at the moment. I'm scared to think how many words I'm going to slaughter. And as I said, I'm really tired, but I can't postpone going through WHDP, because I need to rewrite the first 4 books of the series before publishing the last one. So I better go get some sleep, before sitting in front of my laptop and staying in the same position for another 10 days.

See you on April 25th.

A Secret Post

I hope the readers who love Witch Hollow won't see this post. I am writing this for the aspiring authors, who are still learning to write in English. Remember I said that after I finished the last book of the series, I'd edit the first 4 and move on? Well, I began editing the first book and... cut out 19.000 words!!!

How did it happen? Here's how:

I never liked how the first book had turned out. It was slow, stilted, riddled with awkward phrasing. I had edited it a few times before, cutting out 5000 words, and thought I couldn't make it any better, and that I better moved on to other books. But now, almost 3 years later, when I began reading WHWS, I didn't know if I had to laugh or to cry. My goodness, it was bad! So bad I was red with shame. I knew I couldn't leave it like that, and I began rewriting the whole book.

3 days ago WHWS was 72.000 words. Today it's 53.000. But guess what, the story is the same, all the characters are there, and all the events. Well, almost. I cut out a few scenes, but overall, not much has changed.

So what does this mean?

It means that if you can chop out 19.000 words and still have the same story, then those 19.000 words had nothing to do there in the first place. A lot of them were adjectives and adverbs. And other unnecessary garbage.

Photo from http://laughsandlove.com.

At last I'm not ashamed to mention WHWS when I talk about my books :)) OK, it's 50 pages shorter, but it's 50 times better.

And the book is still free (and always will be), so if you're interested to compare the old and new versions, you can delete the old one from your Amazon account and download the new version.

What am I doing now? That's right, I am editing WHFR. It's 83.000 words at the moment. I wonder how much weight it's going to lose :)) Ha-ha!!!

What was Stephen King saying? Kill your darlings? I don't think he meant only the characters. Kill the words, fellow authors. Less is more.