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.