I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to write nearly verbatim what comes to mind, but my mind isn’t a naturally concise place. There’s a lot going on in there, and oftentimes it all comes out on the page. That means I am always having to make cuts. But let’s not overwrite this intro. Here are some tricks I use to reach a target word count and keep agents interested:
Take a Break
Before you make any number of changes to your most recent draft, I highly suggest you take some time away from it first. Enjoy some rest, spend some time with an existing work in progress, take a moment for a new project that’s been knowing at your ear, build up your author website or social media presence, put in your very best effort to become a sloth. I don’t care what it is, really. Just put some space between yourself and your recent words for enough time that you’ve forgotten it a bit. Making cuts when you’re already feeling bogged down has the potential to hurt you later. Don’t be that person.
Go for the Big Cuts First
There’s a reason why publishing houses have you start with a developmental edit first before they go in for line edits or proofreading. It’s a waste of time to polish something that will change later as your bigger scenes are shaped. So, now’s the time to cut the scenes that aren’t working or don’t bring enough to the table. Now’s the time to mash two scenes together to save space.
Be ruthless but keep your old draft. You can always add some detail back later if needed. If you’re overwritten by more than 10,000 words, you’re almost assuredly going to have to make some big changes. Don’t know what they are? Ask your beta readers or get a developmental editor to help.
Revisit Action Sequences
Action can be a huge word suck for books if you’re not careful. The key to finding a balance between descriptive and overshare is that you should be saving the blow-by-blow sequences for your climax. Not just the climax of your novel, but the climax of a scene as well. It’s okay to slow things down for readers in moments where you really want them to pay attention, but most actions your characters can take should be short and sweet. Turn a page of action into a paragraph or else turn paragraphs into individual sentences.
Dismiss Dialogue Tags
A quick gimme for decreasing your word count can be revisiting your dialogue and limiting the use of dialogue tags. The more distinct your character voices are, the easier this can be. But don’t leave so little context that readers have to go back and count who is saying what. Minimum one tag for every four lines of dialogue.
Note, dialogue is an especially great place to revisit how much character action you need as well. Some action is a great way to fill out the rhythm of the conversation and give context and world building to readers. But a pause to look at scenery or take an action should only take readers as long to read as the pause would play out in real life. Anything longer feels like a proper stopping point.
Start Searching for Prepositions
This is a classic technique used by line editors to improve clarity and sentence flow. If you have more than two prepositional phrases in a sentence, it’s overwrought more times than not. It can be far more impactful to take the most important part of that sentence and let it stand alone—curt for clarity and impact. But more times than not, one or a few of the prepositional phrases in a sentence were tacked on unnecessarily and can be cut without ceremony or a change in reader experience. They’re like little nuggets of gold for word count cuts.
Show Crutch Words No Mercy
Look, I know you have crutch words. Hell, I have crutch words. Stephen King has crutch words. We all have to combat them actively. Usually, I give all kinds of techniques for replacing crutch words, but not today. Cut them ruthlessly. Leave no prisoners. In fact, see if you can find any new ones that have cropped up since your last visit. They’re just a finger space filler while you’re waiting for your brain to catch up. Goodbye!
Get Some Help
If you’re still finding that you’re way over on your target word count after all of these tips, it may be time to bring in a surgeon. It’s literally a line editor’s job to make precise changes to verbiage for clarity and effect. Just about any editor worth their salt can get you to your target word count. Find the right one for you, and they’ll help concentrate your authorial voice and highlight the things you already love about your writing style. More than just a service to cut words, you can learn a lot. And if you can’t afford your full manuscript, you can get some great ideas even from a single chapter.
Meeting the word count expectations of agents based upon your age group and genre is a vital part of continuing through the querying process. So, don't get bogged down! You can get it there.
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