Tightening Your Prose

Often first drafts are written with abandon. Inspiration settles in your fingers, and words spill out like water over the Niagra. But what spills over may not be polished,and it likely is more than is needed to create a good story. Then you must work to shine, polish, and buff your story. Tightening is one way to do that.

Another concern is that publishers require different manuscript lengths for different genres, and when you write your novel, you may not know which publisher is likely to offer you a contract, so knowing how to tighten your story to cut from a hundred thousands words to eight thousand or from one hundred and forty thousands to one hundred and twenty is a good technique to know.

Novelist Tom Morrisey, a friend of mine, shared a blog on his Facebook page called The Prose Diet.  He covers multiple points on effective ways to shorten a novel, but in the same vein, he offers a number of ways for you to improve your prose by being more selective and going for quality.

Here is the link that will provide the details to make those changes. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Morrisey-Novels/109565322410015#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=304759739557238&id=109565322410015. Everyone can benefit by reviewing the major points, Tom, makes to writing the best novel you can.