Being a Better Writer: Less is More? The Art of Cutting in Editing · 10:26pm Apr 2nd, 2018
Welcome, readers, to something new!
Have you noticed what it is yet? I’ll give you a clue. Check the sidebar. Even if you had adblock, it’ll be a little different. Still not sure? Check the address at the top of the page.
Yes, that’s right. Unusual Thingsis no longer tied to another domain. Welcome, readers, to maxonwriting.com! Clicking the link, by the way, will bring you right back to the front page, so it might be utterly pointless to do so at this time. But Unusual Things now is its own site!
Which is why the ads are gone. I never saw them unless I tricked the site into thinking I wasn’t the administrator, but I do recall being quite annoyed with their placement (especially as they shoved my “Latest Release” box out of sight). But they’re gone now, because the site is mine, at its own domain!
Okay, they might be back, butat that point they’ll be ads I choose, and in locations of my choice. And I’d be making the revenue off them, which isn’t a bad thing. As someone who hates obtrusive ads, though, you can betI’ll be placing them where they will cause the least annoyance. Top billing here at Unusual Thingsis forever going to be the content Ioffer, like Being a Better Writerand my latest books.
Okay, some of you might be wondering what this means for you, aside from maybe some annoying ads vanishing. Simple: Unusual Thingsis now much easier to share.
Remember what the address was before? When it was at the wordpress domain? maxviking.wordpress.com. Not exactly the best (or easiest) address to give via word of mouth.
Maxonwriting.com, though, is. Max on writing, dot-com. Boom. Takes people right to the front page. Know someone looking for writing advice? Max on writing dot-com. Okay, it’s not as easy as Max viking dot-com, but I made the mistake of searching to see if that domain was open, and immediately someone snapped it up. So Max on writing dot-com it is.
Okay, I’m spending a large amount of today’s BaBW post’s lead-in on this, but there’s one more change that this opens up: Unusual Thingsis no longer limited to simple, straightforward web design.
First, immediate, caveat: I am not a web designer. I’ve done some graphic design stuff … but extremely tangentially, and I would not claim to be a graphic designer. Unusual Things‘ design is simple and plain, which is good … but it could looksmoother.
Don’t expect any changes immediately. I have a few small ideas in mind, but right now, the site is going to stay looking pretty much the same as I experiment with the new tools at my disposal to see what I can and can’t do. I wouldlike the site to look a bit cleaner and more professional, but I’m not about to dive all over giving it wild fonts and appearances. Unusual Things needs to be kept simple and clean above all else, easy and unobtrusive.
Right, that’s the news. At least, all the news for today. Check back tomorrow for even morenews. Yes, I have been busy lately, why do you ask?
Bah, moving along! It’s time to talk about writing! Well, sort of. Editing, actually. Today’s topic is an interesting one from the list. I can’t recall when it got on there, only that it had to do with a discussion somewhere about the challenges of editing, but it was one of those topics that came up that instantly made me think: Oh, that’d be a good one to talk about.
Now, you’ve probably guessed what it is if you’ve even glanced at the title. Today we’re talking about editing, and we’re talking about one of the more difficult parts of it: cutting stuff.
I’m going to start right away by throwing down a gauntlet: You willcut stuff when you edit your story. If you don’t, you’ve probably done something horribly wrong.
Whelp ... I guess I'm doing something horribly wrong... Because I usually find myself adding stuff and rarely cutting more than a few words at a time. (Except when I'm writing a story of a fixed length.)
That said, (I think) my first drafts are usually pretty damn clean ... and the final draft will often be at least 95% similar to the first draft. I'm a 'go slow and get it right the first time' kind of writer, I guess.
Or maybe it's just a matter of perspective. I can tell you that when I'm editing other people's work, I'm cutting stuff left and right!
Some valid criticism might still be leveled at it if that's the case -- each scene should do more than just one thing, and if pacing is the only thing it accomplishes, why not replace it with a scene that also delivers some backstory/exposition? Or a scene that also provides a bit of important character development and gives it a quiet moment to unfold?
That is, assuming the scene doesn't already serve multiple purposes ... which you could definitely argue that it does. I'd say it also does a great job of making the audience care about Groot a little bit more right before they kill him off.
Heh. That's 90% of what I do when I need to make something shorter! That's how it's done!
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That's still cutting though. Cutting words here and there counts!
It's when you cut nothing at all that something's got to be off.