A Learning Process: What needs to be in my manuscript, anyway?

Hi guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by. For those of you who came to Gallup over the weekend for the library’s author fair, thanks so much for coming out and showing your support! We got to name our number one fan over the weekend, and had so much fun meeting lots of you.

All month long, of course, we’ve been talking about things you need to be looking for while you’re editing your first draft. We’re focusing on the first draft because the first draft is always the hardest to edit, because… well, let’s face it, the first draft is always a mess.

Today, let’s talk about a big one:

Unnecessary Information

Now, this is hard to quantify, yes, but it’s one of those things that you’ll have to get used to finding, while you’re editing. There’s always text that doesn’t need to be there, story parts that don’t move anything forward and don’t really do anything at all in the story in general. It’s important, while you’re editing your first draft, that you find as much unnecessary information as possible and cut it from your manuscript.

I’ll say it again, because I feel the need to say it all the time: keep a copy of your original, so you’ll never have to dread cutting something you loved writing. You’ll always have a copy of it for you, even if your fans never get to read it. Your writing, first and foremost, is for you. I know many people will say that you’re writing for your fans, that you’re writing for your readers, but let’s be honest. You write because you feel the need to write, because there’s something in your soul that says you need to be writing. So always keep a copy of your very first draft, unedited, so you can come back to it anytime you want.

When it comes to finding unnecessary information, of course, there are a few questions I always try to ask myself:

• Does this need to be said?
• Does this need to be said, in this way?
• Does this need to be said, in this way, in this timing?

If you’re a Craig Ferguson fan, you might know where I got those questions from. It was probably the one thing that stuck with me, from everything I ever heard him say.

The point stands, however. These three questions help point you in the right directions, so you’ll be able to tell what sections of your writing need to be there and what sections are fine to delete or move to a different section of the story. There are always pieces of information that can be moved from one area to another, sometimes to be delivered far more smoothly.

Hard to conceptualize? Yes. But if you start asking yourself these questions while you edit, you’ll get the hang of it.

That’s what it’s all about, in the end: getting the hang of it, getting better at it, and figuring out what pieces of your story need to be there and what ones don’t.

It’s all a learning process, and you’ll get better at it as time goes on. I promise.

[love]

{Rani Divine}