What's the best way to cut out the parts that I like, but that don't really have any meaning to a stroy?

Question

I've had this problem a lot. The small bits of writing that kind of wedge their way into the story and then can never be found again. They hang around in the backgrund and drag the story down with them. I have no idea how to find these on my own, because I know there are a few I've missed in editing (by myself and with others- people who've edited writing for thirty plus years). I've read through the manuscript countless times looking for errors, which is why I looked for new views on the thing.

But there still seems to be something off, something I didn't eliminate the first two dozzen times around. Does anone know how to find something like that? I think it's only there because I'm mentally attahched to it, so I try to find other things that seem wrong/out of place.

Answer 1

Common problem. Try telling the story in a paragraph. If you can't make it two. Leave out descriptions and expostulation. Just tell the story. If the story can be told with nothing but dialogue, like a play, try that.

Find writers famous for short short stories and read them a lot. Figure out how they do it. Try only this for a while.

Remind youself that description isn't as important as action and conflict.

Good luck.

Answer 2

It's good to read what you've got and pay attention to the detail. If whatever you're reading begins to talk about something, say an item belonging to Character A, and they get to five sentences without switching to either a different point on the same subject or a different subject entirely, you've then reached something that seems relatively pointless.

However, keep in mind that some writes tend to go into lengthy detail (someone who writes an average of nine or so sentences per paragraph) so you would want to extend the five to a ten sentence read.

Apart from that, you can always skim through this specific part once you discover it so you don't aimlessly search around for the next big issue and end up missing something important.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some authors purposely put bits of writing like that in there to let it stick into the back of the minds fo the readers. There's a good chance that if you've got a good piece of work overall, those little things that may seem unimportant are actually very important and make an appearance later on in the story.

Yes, while it can be incredibly annoying to have to sit there and read something that quite possibly could turn out to be a fluke, you'll never know until later on, when you could suddenly feel confused because you didn't bother to read. You'd waste more time searching for the information in a main passage and you'd never be able to find it because you didn't bother to read the small segment.

Also, if you're worried about things being out of place, try taking out the parts that don't follow the idea of the section you're writing. Reread what you've got and either add more after changing the subject or take the bit you subtracted and add it in at a later point when you're writing on the topic of that piece.

Answer 3

Try reading the text out loud to yourself, or read it into a tape recorder and listen to the text aloud.

I'd also mention this, and I don't know if this will help you or not: You, as the writer, are very attached to your text--of course. However, the reader doesn't know about the five thousand edits that came before the final product. That is, your reader won't miss what he/she hasn't read. So when you eliminate something through careful pruning, you inevitably will improve your work, and you needn't be afraid that your reader will miss something.

Answer 4

It always helps to have someone else read your work. It's not always easy to accept criticism, but it's also hard to be objective about your own work. When I took a creative writing class in college, we had groups of class members who read eachothers work. We made comments and gave helpful criticism. It might be helpful to get together with some other writers or take a class to help you discover the parts of your story that don't need to be there.

Answer 5

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