Using The Delete Button in Editing *sigh*

Photo by Stuart Miles
Freedigitalphotos.net

A precious friend asked me to read through her manuscript and see where I could delete words. She is an excellent writer...I mean she is really good and will be published one day...but her manuscript ended up at a little over 200,000 words. She needed it whittled down to 100,000 - 120,000 words. So basically, I needed to delete close to half her manuscript.

How does one even do that?

I've critiqued other's manuscripts before, but I've never deleted large passages. And that made me a bit nervous! What I needed was a plan. So here is what I decided to do:

1. Cut unnecessary description. Sometimes you can describe a room or scene with just a sentence or two, instead of a paragraph or more. 
2. Cut unnecessary dialogue. As with description, sometimes less is more. Sometimes a longer conversation can be trimmed by deleting a sentence or two. You can still get your point across without the lengthy conversation. 
3. Cut scenes that do not move the story along. This turned out to be difficult for me, because every once in awhile I would delete something only to find out that it was crucial to the story line. If I wasn't absolutely sure, I would write down the scene and page number on a pad of paper for future reference. (You could also mark the manuscript with some asterisks ***, then search the manuscript later in order to delete.)
4. Cut story threads that aren't crucial to the story's big finale. After reading through the whole manuscript, I could look back and see that the ending could come alot quicker in the story. I was able to delete several chapters and end the story with the original ending still intact. 

I have to say that I was not successful in deleting enough words to get the manuscript down to where it needed to be, but I was able to cut it down to 142,000 words. It was not easy and I know that my friend will most likely not like everything I did. But that is the beauty of Track Changes in Word...you can reject any changes! Whew! 

So tell me, what is the hardest edit you have ever done? Or what tricks do you use when you edit? Do you ever edit other people's work? 

****************************************************************************

This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is wife to "Pastor John" and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.