A Grim Sacrifice: Editing and Pacing

One of the most likely and difficult things an author is asked to do is to cut either entire scenes or sections of text to "tighten" up the writing and increase the pacing. When first asked to do this, most authors balk, and understandably so.

It's not exactly like those scenes didn't play into the delicate ballet in your head when they were conceived, or that they were just fluff added in for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, sometimes an author's planning and reasoning abilities are flawed.

Not that the scenes in question aren't important, but they might not serve the novel as well as they could. And painful though it may be to slice and dice your months and years of effort, it can be a blessing in disguise.

So, instead of clutching your manuscript tightly to your chest and refusing to budge, consider these two thoughts from someone who's had to do this...a LOT:


1.  You know your plot. You know where it's headed and, if you're planning sequels you may know character arcs that will carry you into later books. However, your editor/readers don't know this. In fact, they don't care. For one thing, the novel could be a flop, at which point there isn't a sequel to be concerned with.

The Bottom Line: Each novel needs to be a self-contained piece, at least generally. Too much effort spent on foreshadowing things much later in the book or in later books can slow your writing down and confuse your readers. Foreshadowing is fine if done here and there, but be careful not to be too cryptic.

2. You don't have to show and explain everything.

The Bottom Line: Go ahead and write whatever you want. But when it comes time to edit, realize that you might not need to keep it all. Sometimes you can get an easy increase in your pacing by "trimming the fat", if you will.

For example, two characters can be heading from Location A to Location B. You don't have to show them getting into a car, having a conversation all the way there, getting out of the car and then walking up to the door.

Unless everything that happens from A to B is useful and moves the plot forward or colors in your characters, consider having them agree to head to B and then cut to arriving at B, etc.

Topics: Author , Novel , Pacing