Previous exercises here:
Day One: Intro and Drafts
Day Two: Get Concrete
Day Three: The A-to-B Journey
Day Four: A New Draft
You now have two revised drafts: one from yesterday, and one from the day before.
Choose your favorite.
Today your assignment is to tighten
your sentences. In a 100-word story, this will, obviously, be very
important.
-How many words can you take out while
retaining the meaning and the feeling of each sentence?
-Are there still any vague, nonspecific
words?
-Are there any sentences, phrases, or
words that are already implied?
For example, in a story of mine
that was edited by the great people at Tin House recently, one sentence
read, “she rose like a marionette on strings at the sound of his
voice.” The copy editor suggested cutting “on strings,” because
it's already implied by the word “marionette.” It can be hard to spot these things, but if you read over your words a few times with an eye to doing that specifically, you may be surprised at how many words you can cut. This is an exercise that will serve you well in all your writing.
Set your timer for fifteen minutes and
revise your story by tightening it as much as possible. Can you get it down to 100 words?
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