I've definitely seen an evolution in my editing and by evolution, I mean my editing no longer consists of a simple comma addition here or a word change there. Nowadays, a piece can have at least five editing sessions before it's on its way to the next phase, the submission process.
I'm forever fascinated with how other authors edit. The quirkier the better. I like sampling other people's techniques in the hopes of being able to add it to my own Authorly Arsenal.
Recently, I stumbled upon something almost by accident. When I edit, I do so with a hard copy and a set of colorful pens. Round one of editing consists of taking one of said colorful pens and going through to take out any redundancies. After each pen and paper editing round, I'll make the corrections on the computer copy.
So, it was during one of my computer corrections that I happened to glance down and see my word count dwindling. It stopped at 3,967. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can get that down to an even 3K?"
The challenge began! I took the hard copy of the manuscript and really forced myself to look over it (keep in mind, this was already my fourth or fifth time scouring the piece). I would go line by line word by word and ask myself if it REALLY had to be there, if it lent anything to the story. 967 words is nothing to scoff at and when you've already done some significant editing, it's no walk in the park.
Although the goal was 3,000 words, I didn't quite make it. The final word count was something like, 3,039. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. As much as I tried, I couldn't get rid of those last 39 words. In not being able to do that, I realized that I had made the piece as concise as I could. I could say with confidence that every word was necessary for the story I was trying to tell.
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