Elie Wiesel quote
Just found this great quote in the Wordsmithshoppe newsletter:
There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don't see them.
~Elie Wiesel
If you've been reading my blog (all two of you or so *grin*), you know that I cut out the first eight and a half chapters of my book.
The scars from that surgery haven't totally healed, so this really impacted me.
posted by L. S. King @ 2:49 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I know how hard it can be to cut your work; I have the same problem. Sometimes I know I should cut a part out of a story but I keep thinking "No, I love that part."
But I agree with the quote that even if some of the story is cut out, it's still there in a way. The words are not wasted for sure.
Sci Fi and Fantasy rely on detailed worlds that are created by the writer. Sometimes you have to write a lot about your world in order to get the story right, to work out all the details. Even if those words don't make it into the final version of the story, the knowledge of them is there, making the story richer and the world more real, more believable.
I hope that helps some with the phantom pain you feel in the amputated part of your story. Remember it's not really gone and the effort wasn't wasted.
I think it's sometimes uncanny how other's writing experiences are so much like our own. I do love those "I'm not alone!" moments.
I'm currently going through a YA manuscript with a view to cutting out 15% of every chapter's word count. It's not an easy job, and it's sad sometimes what has to go.
I know that's nothing like cutting away several chapters, but to some degree, I feel your pain! :)
Write on!
I know the feeling. I'd written about 50,000 words to my proposed novel when I got stalled. After attending a workshop, I realized that I needed to cut out a great deal of words which I really loved, scenes that I had written so painstakingly down had to go. I realize that cutting was best for the manuscript but oh, how it hurts.
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