Just want to confirm that the best thing you can do when you think you've finished a wip is to give it drawer-time.

I did that several weeks ago while a much-valued and experienced WW'er gave it a look over. Now, with some feedback, I can say with conviction that I had become so myopic that I really couldn't see the wood for the trees.

I feel much happier now because I think I have the key to unlock the door to the next stage in order to make this novel take off. And I'm also happy because I feel reunited with a good friend. And at 28k my new project was beginning to stutter.

But I have one reservation. In making my required changes, the word count will go beyond 100k. (Yes, the changes will be additions. Pruning went as far as it could.)

Is this significant? It is my first. Or should I disregard the word count? I haven't made a set-in-stone decision about what to do with it when it is complete.

It's so true about drawer time. Every time, I can't believe the things I didn't see when I was working on it, which leap out and smack me in the eyes after those weeks.

Anything under 120,000 no one whose opinion matters is going to notice or even comment on, since those extra words are all well-earned.

(Actually, no one noticed that TMOL was 141,000...)

Edited by EmmaD at 11:58:00 on 07 July 2013

Anything under 120,000 no one whose opinion matters is going to notice or even comment on, since those extra words are all well-earned.

Good. I'm glad you said that.

Good luck with the expansion.

(Actually, no one noticed that TMOL was 141,000...)

Well thank the lord for that ... I've just finished the umpteenth read-through and tweak of the third re-write of a novel I began in 2011 and have added to, then pruned, with several periods of 'drawer time' and at a fraction under 139K, think it's done. At least enough not to embarrass me in York. (Well, not at this distance)
So I'd say tell the story Alan, then give it more drawer time.
And Good Luck

a fraction under 139K,

Having said what I did about TMOL, my agent did say more recently, a propos the work-in-progress "If you can get it down to around 130,000, so much the better."

Which makes a lot of sense. Sticking to the wider limits of the usual range is a good idea, because if things are much longer or much shorter than the norm, then (as with anything else outside the norm of what-usually-sells) it really needs to justify its length, and preferably not be too outside-the-norm in other ways. "So much the better" expresses that idea nicely, it seems to me.

On the other hand, story is all - and if it really is the right length for itself, then so be it. But it's a rare book that isn't the better for having between 5% and 10% of its words fished out...

I should mention that TMOL is 141,000, but it's essentially two 70,000 word novels interwoven. So each story is, in itself, quite short and simple.

But it's a rare book that isn't the better for having between 5% and 10% of its words fished out...

Emma, I'm absolutely certain you're right ... it's just that at the moment I can't see how to do it, and it'll need longer than a couple of months' drawer time before I can effectively tackle it. Meanwhile, on with the next, applying what I've learnt from this before I make the same mistakes ...

it's just that at the moment I can't see how to do it,

Yes, you go blind after a bit, and need some distance.

I think, though, that you need less time before you can see the surplus words tucked into sentences, than you need before you can see the surplus paragraphs and scenes tucked into chapters.

In the WIP, the only actual chunks of a couple of hundred words, say, which I can see could go in terms of plot, are really important in other ways. And because, of course, they're properly hitched to the bit before and the bit after and connect elsewhere too, by the time I'd re-knitted things across the gaps I wouldn't have got rid of that much anyway.

But I took 400 words out of a 4000 word story the other day i.e. a full 10% - without the story even noticing. Admittedly it was one which I wrote ages ago, but I'd have sworn I'd cut it to the bone, several times, all those ages ago. On one of my novels that would equate to taking 13,000 words out...

It's amazing how much the word count diminishes when you do that kind of filletting, without it feeling as if there's anything missing. And it always ends up tighter for it.

Edited by EmmaD at 10:22:00 on 09 July 2013

Sharley and Sandra, thanks.

it's just that at the moment I can't see how to do it, and it'll need longer than a couple of months' drawer time before I can effectively tackle it.

I know this is no help to you, but when I restarted my very first project after over two years in the drawer, I saw that there was no way I could merely rejiggle. It was a write-off. But I salvaged enough to form the basis of a whole new project. I couldn't see it at the time - I'd spent four years and gone into a corkscrew. There was just too much that was wrong.

I don't want that to happen wih my almost-complete wip.

Sandra, you might find that if you leave your 139k for several months, or longer, the solution will be more obvious to you.

But I took 400 words out of a 4000 word story the other day i.e. a full 10% - without the story even noticing

If that were me, I would get pleasure from it.

I would get pleasure from it.

Well yes, I did - always happy to exercise my craft. The story didn't suffer in the fundamental sense, so it was worth it, to be able to put it in for the comp concerned.

And then no, in the sense that some of the cuts were just surplus stuff, but some were a sacrifice of colour and texture, nuance, thematic echo, that kind of thing. Those are losses.

I had an interesting time a few years back, getting a 5,500 word story down to 5,000 to put into a comp - again, 10%. It took a couple of passes - you always think you've cut it to the bone, and have to leave it for a day, and have another go. And it was fine - and, in fact, the story did well in the comp concerned so it obviously didn't spoil it to that extent.

But, months later, I used Word to merge the two versions, so the cuts and changes were tracked. I went through accepting or rejecting the changes, and was interested to find that I restored about half of them. Without the boundary of the word count, the story did benefit from the stuff which was surplus in terms of basic story, but not at all surplus in terms of the reader's overall experience of that story.

Don't know why it took me so long to use track changes for that kind of revision process more generally .

But I took 400 words out of a 4000 word story the other day i.e. a full 10% - without the story even noticing

Aye - one chapter (against which I'd written "a bit flat") was fizzed up immeasurably by reducing it from 2507 to 1508 words.

My WIP spends far too much time in a metaphorical drawer. I fantasise about one day, when I'm really successful, I can justify spending time doing it instead of all the other things I'm supposed to do.

It is written, but needs sorting out. When the sun goes away again I'm going to have another surge. I've made myself a list of everything I need to do to it.

Deb

Edited by debac at 31/12/1899 00:40:00 on 11 July 2013