You know how when you edit, you are supposed to cut words? Well, I trimmed A LOT. Yet, after this version of editing, my word count has gone up from 94119 to 94574. Not a big change no - but it's much bigger change when you consider that the original draft was about 89000 words.
However, I know exactly why this has happened, so no panic necessary. My first drafts, and especially my speedy first draft (this was for NaNo) are always sparse. Description especially is usually quite lacking in these drafts, so that had to be amended. On top of that though I deleted several scenes, I also ended up adding a few, so overall, the numbers make sense.
What about you? When you edit - which way does your word count travel?
I always feel guilty adding words. Someone said we're supposed to cut 10% when editing. I tend to do that, but usually because I find better, fewer words to say something, if I'm not cutting entire scenes.
ReplyDeleteIf I take out all the rubbish words and replace them with good ones... it tends to stay the same. Funny that.
ReplyDeleteI lost about 7k from the last draft of Art of Forgetting and I still think it's too long, but I'm running out of things to cut!
Funnily enough, I actually did trim a lot of fat - but it's simply the way I write my first drafts that descriptions are added later. But yeah, overall, it goes down after the first edit, and then it goes up as I start to layer descriptions in.
ReplyDeleteI put everything but the kitchen sink in my drafts, so they can only get much shorter. I cut a lot of dialogue (I love to write dialogue!) and a lot of sub-plot too, and then of course I look for better ways to say things, with fewer words. Action sequences in particular always get trimmed a lot that way, thank goodness!
ReplyDelete