Surprised your editor didn't suggest making a 137,000 word book into two books -- and greatly increase its odds of selling many more books. This essay has no wasted fluff words. (To many blogs do) If those extra words in your novel contain the rich details we sci fi lovers live for, eliminating too many might cheat you readers.
Unless he thought it would be easier to cut 15,000 words...
Then again, I've skimmed more than read one to many word-bloated classics. Please share in a fellow up essay your emotional response to the slimmed down version of your latest novel.
I originally wrote Space Trucker Jess intending it to be 3-4 novellas, possibly many more. I wrote the first novella (~35K words) and showed it to a few first readers, and they all said it needed to be longer, i.e. a novel, and that there wasn't enough story to form a strong opinion. (Ellen Datlow's exact words were, "It's great; keep going."
I'm glad I expanded the book into a novel. It's a complete story, and it still leaves room for additional books. As you will hopefully see, Jess, the title character, is quite the personality.
Mainly, the publisher wanted me to cut words to keep the book at the ideal price point. But also because he felt there were areas that could be improved. You have to put your ego aside for these things. Some parts of the book needed a good haircut. I still have *plenty* of rich details in the book. But one of the tricks of editing/revising is deciding which details to include, which to omit, and how to convey the most amount of detail in the fewest words. Readers will conjure their own image in their mind anyway, so over-describing can sometimes work against you.
I wouldn't call my revised book "slimmed down" except perhaps on a physical level. Fewer words doesn't necessarily mean less content. In fact, I'd argue that my revision says more in fewer words. The difference is I chose better words and I cut stuff I didn't think help the narrative. Like cut scenes from a film, you usually can see why the director chose not to include them.
As I said in the blog post, I do have a large folder of cut scenes, as well as a long glossary of terms, so I might publish that at some point in the future.
I just finished a novel (hope it's finished. Just sent it to a highly qualified beta reader who does not know me or anything about the story) that started as a short story. Every publication I sent it to that included a comment along with amazingly encouraging rejections said the same thing, it would work better as a novel. My short story grew to only 80,000 words which -- as you know -- in hard sci fi barely qualifies as a novella. Happy cutting.
Your next blog, consider discussing what the passages you cut most commonly have in common. You're an excellent writer, and we would all benefit from that. Could even be the basis for a short book about writing.
A recent Novel Marketing blog/podcast mentioned that short novels are supposedly more popular and then shared one of the current best sellers in 130,000 words. Trends are for market analyzers. Meanwhile, we writers just gotta keep writing & rewriting and trust someday...
Surprised your editor didn't suggest making a 137,000 word book into two books -- and greatly increase its odds of selling many more books. This essay has no wasted fluff words. (To many blogs do) If those extra words in your novel contain the rich details we sci fi lovers live for, eliminating too many might cheat you readers.
Unless he thought it would be easier to cut 15,000 words...
Then again, I've skimmed more than read one to many word-bloated classics. Please share in a fellow up essay your emotional response to the slimmed down version of your latest novel.
I originally wrote Space Trucker Jess intending it to be 3-4 novellas, possibly many more. I wrote the first novella (~35K words) and showed it to a few first readers, and they all said it needed to be longer, i.e. a novel, and that there wasn't enough story to form a strong opinion. (Ellen Datlow's exact words were, "It's great; keep going."
I'm glad I expanded the book into a novel. It's a complete story, and it still leaves room for additional books. As you will hopefully see, Jess, the title character, is quite the personality.
Mainly, the publisher wanted me to cut words to keep the book at the ideal price point. But also because he felt there were areas that could be improved. You have to put your ego aside for these things. Some parts of the book needed a good haircut. I still have *plenty* of rich details in the book. But one of the tricks of editing/revising is deciding which details to include, which to omit, and how to convey the most amount of detail in the fewest words. Readers will conjure their own image in their mind anyway, so over-describing can sometimes work against you.
I wouldn't call my revised book "slimmed down" except perhaps on a physical level. Fewer words doesn't necessarily mean less content. In fact, I'd argue that my revision says more in fewer words. The difference is I chose better words and I cut stuff I didn't think help the narrative. Like cut scenes from a film, you usually can see why the director chose not to include them.
As I said in the blog post, I do have a large folder of cut scenes, as well as a long glossary of terms, so I might publish that at some point in the future.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
I just finished a novel (hope it's finished. Just sent it to a highly qualified beta reader who does not know me or anything about the story) that started as a short story. Every publication I sent it to that included a comment along with amazingly encouraging rejections said the same thing, it would work better as a novel. My short story grew to only 80,000 words which -- as you know -- in hard sci fi barely qualifies as a novella. Happy cutting.
Your next blog, consider discussing what the passages you cut most commonly have in common. You're an excellent writer, and we would all benefit from that. Could even be the basis for a short book about writing.
For what it's worth, I've heard short novels are the "thing" right now.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have a look.
A recent Novel Marketing blog/podcast mentioned that short novels are supposedly more popular and then shared one of the current best sellers in 130,000 words. Trends are for market analyzers. Meanwhile, we writers just gotta keep writing & rewriting and trust someday...