Running With Scissors: Cutting the crap out of my novel.

When I first got my feedback on Prophecy from one of my beta readers, I felt a little disheartened. She wasn't unkind or unfair. She delivered her feedback with sensitivity and I took everything she said on board. She's been where I am and assured me she made all the same writing mistakes a year ago. But it did take me a while to have the guts to read what she'd written in the document after receiving the e-mail feedback, mostly because I was surprised at how far I still had to go with my writing.

I was scared to even start the editing process and embarrassed to be so far off the mark. But, now I'm doing it, it's actually proving quite enjoyable, even the parts I thought I'd hate. I remember taking a very deep breath when my beta reader told me I needed to cut a lot of stuff out. I'd worked so hard on everything I'd put in there, and who doesn't tend to think every word is essential at first? I panicked, thinking I was going to lose half my story by the time I'd made the necessary cuts. Most of all, I couldn't help thinking, "Am I really that bad at writing?"

In any case, receiving detailed feedback has helped me see my writing more clearly. Now, as I read my work, I can almost guess what the notes are going to say because I'm starting to pick out the problematic bits myself. The metaphorical scissors have come out and I am running with them, cutting chunks of text all over the place, and it doesn't break my heart to do it. Not even a little bit. In fact, it feels liberating not to be so precious about every single word. I can look at it now and think, "This bit's too rambly and repetitive" or "This word isn't necessary". I'm making every word work hard for its place on the page.

I cut a huge section out of my first chapter. I thought was important, but it slowed the pace too much; not the best way to open a story. Before I started I thought, "How the Hell am I going to do this?" but, by the time I'd finished, I felt like I could do anything. I thought I was going to lose a lot of the readers' empathy for one of the main characters through cutting an emotional flashback scene. My feedback on the revision was that their empathy actually increased and the readers found it easier to follow.

It's funny, when we first start out, we don't realise the importance of being concise. We think our purple prose makes us sound clever, but it doesn't. It makes us sound really boring and pretentious. We need to save our flowery language for poetry.

If, like me, you've been writing your first book, you might feel a bit daunted by the prospect of editing. I guess some people will like it and others will loathe it. I always thought I'd fall into the second category, but the joy I get from tightening up a chapter, getting rid of all the crap that doesn't need to be there, has surprised me. It's actually bordering on fun, and I can see my own progress. I am becoming a better writer. I know I can get this novel up to scratch, despite my previous misgivings.

So, if you get some feedback that disappoints you or you get told you need to cut a great deal of your work, don't panic. It's definitely not the end of the world and you can still make it work if you can learn from those mistakes. I wish you the best of luck, whatever stage you're at, and I'd love to hear from you about your works in progress in the comments.

For me, it's time to get the scissors back out!

V.