In a post on Writers Helping Writers, Suzy Vadori offers practical tips for cutting your word count without killing the scenes you love. “You love your characters,” she says. “You feel every scene and action you included is needed in your book. The thought of parting with any of it feels like a vice is squeezing you around the chest.”
While some writers may need to cut entire scenes, chapters, or characters from their novels, Vadori says that trimming the fat from your narrative can reduce your word count while keeping the meat of your story. She suggests trying these tips first:
- Slash filler words. In real life, people stammer or use “um” and “ah” when they speak, but these aren’t necessary in your writing and are often distracting for the reader. If your character is hesitant or lying, find another way to signal it. Other empty words include that, just, and like.
- Kill filter words and phrases. Filter words create distance between your reader and your narrator/protagonist. You probably don’t realize that you’re doing it, but phrases like “the character saw” or “the character heard” are unnecessary. Instead of telling the reader that your protagonist saw something, describe the object itself. Other filter phrases include thought, touched, wondered, realized, watched, and noticed.
- Eliminate dialogue tags. A lot of writers overuse he said/she said. When only two people are talking, you need fewer tags, as your paragraph breaks signal when one or the other is speaking. Also, insert actions and reactions to signal who is speaking. This breaks up the monotony of he said/she said.
- Remove character names in dialogue. In real life, we rarely call out the name of the person we’re talking to, unless we’re trying to get their attention. Watch for places where your characters use each other’s names awkwardly.
- Combine repeated scenes, recaps, or characters. For the hardcore word count offenders, you may need to analyze your scenes and characters. Do you have a scene where a character is telling another something that happened previously, which your reader has already experienced. Don’t tell the same story twice! Use a recap. Also, if your characters visit a location several times, considering combining these scenes, Vadori suggests. “You’ll keep all the ‘stuff’ that happens, but combining scenes will give you lots of opportunity to tighten up word count,” she writes. If you have several characters filling similar roles, consider combining them. You can still keep their actions and dialogue, but can cut back on introductions and descriptions.
