The Fine Art of Killing Words: Edit for a Lean, Mean Manuscript with Beth Daniels

The Fine Art of Killing Words: Edit for a Lean, Mean Manuscript with Beth Daniels

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Level
Mixed
Basic and Premium Members Prices
Premium Members $30 & Basic Members $40

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Category
  1. Editing
  2. Structure
  3. Grammar
  4. POV
  5. Voice
$5 off Early Registration Coupon-expires 1 week before class starts
LEANMEANMSDANIELS
Not long ago my agent gave me what sounded like an impossible mission. Trim a 100,000+ word manuscript to under 90,000 words. That’s approximately 35 pages worth of words. Words I sweated to string together. Words I loved.

“I think it will interest more editors at the shorter length,” my agent said. Considering I’d done estimated word counts on similar books and thought that 100,000 was on the slim side, I was dumbfounded. I’d already edited it to death, I thought.

I thought wrong.

The thing to remember is that the marketplace changes, but those changes frequently don’t show up at the bookstore until the manuscripts currently bought by editors make it to the bookshelves. This could be anywhere from months to a couple years away.

If editors were now looking for shorter stories, so be it, I thought and settled in for yet another editing sessions.

And cut 11,353 words – in five days’ time.

Oddly enough, the manuscript I’d thought was perfect, sang much more sweetly when I finished.

In four weeks, we’ll walk this walk together, evaluating what can go and what needs to stay, changing verbs, revising sentences, giving up adverbs (hardest thing for me!), trimming descriptions, catching when characters babble, and limiting dialogue tags.

The Fine Art of Killing Words isn’t entirely about using the delete key, it’s about turning out a manuscript that hits all the right notes.
Author
Beth Daniels
Start date
Jan 8, 2018 at 9:00 AM
End date
Feb 4, 2018 at 6:00 PM
Registration end date
Jan 10, 2018 at 4:00 PM
Rating
5.00 star(s) 26 ratings

More classes from Beth Daniels

Latest reviews

Interesting and informative. Lots of feedback from the teacher. I thought I got my money's worth, and I'd take another class from her.
A thorough course, run with wit and intelligence -- 10/10, would recommend for any author in the process of editing!