What My Manuscript Learned in Reconstructive Surgery

Seeing as I'm currently in the middle of five, yes five, different books, soon to be six when Mockinjay (YAY!) is delivered tomorrow (did you hear that Amazon? I don't want to come home to a package slip that says my signature is required. Leave the package or there will be consequences), I'm going to have my head in a book this week even more than usual so I figured I should do a post today.

A few weeks ago, after several rounds of revisions, I sent my manuscript to reconstructive surgery. In the process, I learned a lot that I had been told many times before but that makes a lot more sense when you learn it for yourself. However, just in case anyone else is able to learn through me, I'll expound.

I cut about 7,000 words, and it was pretty easy. I put them in another word document so they weren't lost forever, and I discovered that events that in my head were crucial to the plot were actually extraneous and could be removed without affecting much of the story.

That's the important part of this lesson - if you can remove an element of the plot and not have to change many of the following pages to stay consistent, then whatever it was was probably unnecessary.

Also important was that many of the cut bits in the second word document said the same thing. Over and over and over again. I was so afraid that certain crucial points wouldn't be picked up that I said them too many times, and consequently lost all tension. Because a part that was cut from the beginning had essentially the same sentiment as a paragraph cut from the end. That, in and of itself, is a bad sign.

Now while I was cutting all these words, I also added about 4,000 more. Because while I realized I could cut two pages and replace it with a single sentence pages later and have everything still make sense, I also discovered that certain characters had little depth. Which I already knew - I had written myself a note in all caps with a similar sentiment and then chose to ignore it - and I had to add words to make the characters more clear to everyone who isn't in my head (and you should be glad you aren't trapped in it...).

So if I were to sum up what I learned, it's this:

1. Check each part of your manuscript and ask if the story works without that chapter or plot device. If it does work without it, remove it or make it necessary.

2. If something can be placed at any part of your manuscript, that's probably not good.

3. Trust your gut. If your initial reaction was that a character isn't well-rounded enough, don't talk yourself out of that. Give him hobbies and motivations and a life!

And leave it to Dawson's Creek to provide me a bit of inspiration, which I now pass on to you.

Everything in life is not about winning - it's about finding joy in the process and loving what you do.

So with that I wish everyone a happy Mockingjay Eve, and that you may find JOY in whatever process you are in the midst of!