Do you ever feel like you are getting bogged down with too many chapters when you write? Do you feel like you're just going on and on and on with a chapter, and it's leading you nowhere?
Maybe you can't cut a chapter because there's something important revealed in one single paragraph of the entire thing. Maybe you just love a certain description too much.
One way to see if a chapter is really that important is to ask yourself a few questions:
1.) What did I learn in this chapter?
2.) Did it move the story forward?
If you can honestly answer YES to both these questions, keep the chapters. If you can't, maybe take a closer look at them. You probably don't need them. Keep the "good stuff" and ditch the rest.
Someone once told me that there was an author who would find the best, the prettiest, the most perfect part if his book, and delete it. Ouch, huh? That's braver than I am right now! But if you can get rid of the best part of your book, you won't hold on to those pretty elements that will clutter your novels with too many chapters.
God bless!
Cat
Excellent point, Cat. Sometimes it just takes distance. It's been a year since I worked on one particular story, and pulling it back out now I can definitely see places where I went wrong.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it nice to see how you've improved?
ReplyDeleteCutting can be tough but necessary. I've had to get rid of things I've loved, but in the end, I knew it was for the good of the story. Besides, that part you loved, might be able to be reworked into a different piece.
ReplyDeleteI know. I NEVER throw anything away. You never know what you can use later. :)
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