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The Second Draft (Novels)
I was discussing editing and rewriting on another forum and mentioned that when I started a second draft I aim to cut out 50% of the original (40,000+) and rewrite these gaps. Some people found it a shocking statistic! I do it because I find that I cut out the flabby scenes and leave the strongest elements.
What is everyone else's technique?
Comments
The draft I'm editing now is the fourth, and I'm just up to chapter 4. This draft is different to the previous ones, in that I'm not so much redrafting the story as tightening up the writing. Up to now I've cut quite a lot out -- mostly adverbs that are liberally peppered all over the place, but also lines and whole paragraphs that I have found niggled at me every time I read them but I've been reluctant to cut them because I liked what I'd written.
Editing is hard (to state the extremely obvious), but I know I have to be brutal if I want my book to be the very best that it can be.
*SA*
But I keep a folder for all substantial cuts; a sort of recycle bin full of labelled text trimmings.
By the time I get to draft 4, I usually copy the file and then work on the actual text, chopping, cutting, pasting and adding new stuff. But sometimes I throw up my hands in despair and start another complete rewrite.
It all feels very inefficient - but I can't seem to work any other way.
1st draft = 2nd draft - 10%.
I'm working through the edits of HM's book at the moment, whole paragraphs are going and when they are gone, I can see why they needed to be removed, the result is a tighter, better read. We just added words yesterday, which was a surprise, when we have been cutting.