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Tag: The Brightest Thread

Subplots and Storylines – March 2016

Tracey Dyck 29 Comments

Sometimes life walks along calmly, sedately, hands in its pockets, whistling as it goes. And sometimes life dashes willy-nilly down the street, hat flying clear away and feet slapping a staccato rhythm on the pavement. My March was more like the latter. New subplots sprang up on the page at the same time old ones wrapped up, and I’m sitting here today blinking at the calendar and wondering how in the world a whole month is over already.

The weavings of life’s subplots . . .

March began as it usually does, and as all months tend to do: on the first. But this first of March was special. The long-awaited announcement of the Five Magic Spindles contest had arrived! I was scheduled to work an early shift that day, and wasn’t sure if the news would be posted before I left. Fortunately, it was up in time. With my brother (who’d entered that awesome Japanese samurai story I mentioned a while back) looking over my shoulder, I scrolled down . . . and saw five names that were not ours, nor those of any of my friends who had entered.
Naturally, we were disappointed. But then I checked the list of the Top Ten Finalists–AND MY NAME WAS LISTED.

I could hardly believe it. Me? Among the top ten?

Let’s just say it was a good thing my work shift was short, and even better that I was working in the back room the whole time. I seriously doubt I would’ve been much help to customers. My brain was running in ecstatic circles, screaming the same thing over and over: “I’m a finalist!” As if repetition would make it sink in.

Needless to say, that was an amazing way to start my month!

The next subplot of life to be woven in was a week-long trip my parents took, during which I ran the household. Not that it needed much running. My siblings are fantastic and helped out a lot. (Love you guys!)

The morning after my parents returned, I packed up and headed out of town for my dear friend’s wedding. I got there the day before to help set up and decorate. The wedding was gorgeous. The weather was perfect for outdoor pictures (meaning I didn’t go completely numb like I’d expected), I had so much fun with the bride and my fellow bridesmaids, and the ceremony and reception were beautiful! My friend has found an amazing, godly young man. They’re perfect together. I was honored to celebrate their special day with them. And you know how most weddings have something that goes wrong? There was nothing like that for theirs. Crazy amazing.

(I snagged a couple pictures off the photographers’ Facebook.)

The happy couple!
If you look really closely at the left picture,
I’m the bridesmaid on the far right. 
a collage of my own pictures
My Bible study group began a series on the heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11. We started with Rahab, and guess what? If you check the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, you’ll see that Rahab married a guy named Salmon. Multiple historical sources say that Salmon was one of the two spies that Rahab hid in her house! How cool is that?! We’ve also spent two sessions studying Gideon, which was quite inspiring.

Spring is well on its way. Only a teensy tiny bit of snow is left on the yard, and we’ve had some sunny, warm days, which is very welcome. (And also snow. Falling from the sky. That’s just Manitoba for ya.)

You know that quick decision I made that just felt right? Well, that decision was to sign up for a writing course offered by an author I respect and admire. What he’s already posted freely online has helped me gain new perspectives, so I’m excited to dive into the actual course material soon.

My brother and I attended a college info night. The application is sitting on my desk, waiting for me to fill it out. I’m honestly so excited for fall!

And basically there were Easter gatherings, long walks, errands, way too much pizza, journaling like crazy last weekend to try to sum up my month, and falling behind on my inbox and blog reading. (So sorry, folks.)

Storylines on screen

As you can see, life’s goings-on didn’t leave a lot of room for media, but I did watch a few things.

  • Epic (rewatch): I love this movie about tiny leaf men who ride hummingbirds, and a villain rotting the forest, and a young girl trying to connect to her absentminded father. This time around, I found myself paying more attention the storytelling techniques, and appreciating the strong chain of cause and effect.
  • The Scorch Trials: I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know how much it deviated from the source material, but I thought it was good. My biggest problem was with the frequent swearing. Not too sure what I think about the Cranks, either. I couldn’t decide if they were so exaggeratedly creepy that they were almost comical, or if they were simply creepy. Either way, they are wince-worthy. But I did really enjoy certain characters, especially Thomas, Minho, and Newt. (I don’t even know why, but I’ve loved Minho’s character since The Maze Runner.) With fast pacing, awesome scenery, and even a difficult and thought-provoking ethical dilemma, The Scorch Trials was a great sequel.
  • Once Upon a Time (part of Season 3): You probably saw this coming, huh? My sisters and I are quite enjoying this season! We’re about halfway through, and lots is happening. Lots. I have a few minor complaints, but most of it is fantastic. Peter Pan. The Wicked Witch. And the development happening in some of the key characters makes me a really happy Oncer. (Is that what they’re called? I don’t even know.)

Storylines on the page

Only two books this month. To be fair, I am 100 pages into my third book, but seeing as I’ll finish it in April, it doesn’t count.

  • Cinder by Marissa Meyer: I’ve heard mixed reviews on this one, so finally I picked it up for myself. And I loved it! The whole cyborg element was a fresh twist on Cinderella, and it was fun to pick out the references to the original fairy tale, such as the old fashioned orange car (aka pumpkin coach). This novel was by turns intriguing, heart wrenching, and adorable. Seriously, I ship Cinder and Kai SO MUCH. With every chapter I finished, I kept wanting to write up a fangirly email to send the author, but then I remembered this was published and I wasn’t beta reading a friend’s book. For some reason it felt like I was. Anyway. If I starred books, I’d probably give this one four and a half!
  • Paige Turned by Erynn Mangum: This is the final instalment of the Paige Alder trilogy that I started last summer, and it continued to be what the first two books were: fun, lighthearted romance with surprisingly profound moments. Paige is such a relatable character. I was rooting for her all the way. It was great to see her finally doing what she’s always wanted to do, and finally dating the “right guy.” And the ending was perfect!

Sort of in the reading department–I went to a book faire and scrounged up four books to bring home. Tada!

Clockwise from top left: Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, Storm Siren by Mary Weber, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and Greatest Adventures by Jules Verne (a 2-book collection including Journey to the Center of the Earth and Round the World in 80 Days.)

I bought Captivating because I enjoyed it so much earlier this year, but didn’t have my own copy. Storm Siren because I’ve heard many people like it, so for a couple dollars, why not? (Also that cover!!) Strange & Norrell because my good friend Sarah recommended it numerous times. And the Jules Verne book because . . . well, mainly because of that delicious old cover. And because owning classics makes me feel smart. Hey, just being honest!

With every book faire I go to, I keep my eyes open for any Diana Wynne Jones books–specifically Howl’s Moving Castle–and have had no such luck. This time was just as fruitless in the DWJ department as all the times before. Sigh.

Subplots of my own making

According to my monthly goals, March was to be the month I began drafting (or redrafting, to be more accurate) book 2 of my YA fantasy series. I didn’t get as far into it as I might have liked, but considering the circumstances, I’m quite pleased with the 7,786 words I wrote. I’m on chapter three by now. Things be happening, folks.

I feel like I’m starting to hit my stride. The beginning of a writing project is usually the slowest for me–I’m getting used to the story, oftentimes reorienting my brain into drafting mode (instead of editing or planning mode), and figuring out what I’m doing. But I’m beginning to get back into it, and I have high hopes for April’s writing.

Once I’m further along–perhaps once I’ve finished writing this book and started editing–which means like *cough* a year from now?–I may have to write a more in-depth post about sequels. It’s so weird to write one! I’ve been stuck on book 1 for so long, in which I’ve been able to mentally check off all the techniques and elements needed in a first book. “Yep, this sets up that plot thread. Here’s the incident that motivates Character A to do this. And there’s the foreshadowing for that . . .”

It’s all different, and yet all somehow similar, in a sequel. There’s a whole book behind you to build on. It’s a blessing and a curse, a pro and a con. You don’t have to set up everything all over again, yet you have to reference the first book in a clear, concise way that moves this story along. Your characters have grown, so they’re better at what they used to struggle with, but at the same time, they’re struggling even harder with other things. It’s fun, but definitely not easy.

Also in writing news is something I’ve mentioned already: I was featured in a guest post on Stori Tori’s Blog called So Your Character is From Canada. I had tons of fun participating, as well as getting to interact with commenters afterwards. If you haven’t checked it out yet, there’s lots of great stuff to learn from all three of us who were interviewed! Kudos to Tori for such a brilliant series of posts. There’ll be more on other countries yet.

Oh yeah, and I wrote a poem for the first time in months, which you can find here.

And I did a bit more agent research too. The list of potentials is slowly growing . . .

March was a whirlwind, but I’m still alive.

Actually, it was an amazing whirlwind. Tiring on some days, but when I look back on just how much was packed into this month, I’m–what? Content? Excited? Satisfied? Looking forward to April? Is there a word that combines all of the above? I don’t know. March was a good month.

So how about your wonderful selves? Was March like a lamb or lion for you–tame or wild? (Or some other animal, such as a platypus. Interpret that creature simile as you wish.) I’ve blabbered on quite long enough about my own life. Now I want to hear something about yours!

P.S. Today marks one year since Adventure Awaits began! I had grand plans of posting this S&S yesterday, and having a blogoversary post ready for today, but I overestimated the time involved and underestimated my schedule. So hopefully I’ll have a late blogoversary thingamajig ready for this weekend sometime. Stick around–it should be fuuuun . . .

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The Brightest Thread Playlist

Tracey Dyck 17 Comments

I sent The Brightest Thread off to the contest this week! Is it just me, or do you feel that little twinge of apprehension when your cursor hovers over the send button? And then click—you hit it, and suddenly the story is out of your hands. Strangely enough, I feel the most confident about this contest. Or perhaps there’s a little . . . I don’t want to say indifference, because I am excited . . . maybe peacefulness? Because I’d honestly be happy with whatever results. Winning = being published. Losing = not really losing at all, because I’m left with a story I love, a story that I would then be free to re-expand. (Yes, after all that cutting!)

Anyhoozens.

To celebrate, I’m posting a playlist I put together for TBT. Some pieces are instrumental, others lyrical. They all fit an element of the story. Because some of those pieces overlap, putting the songs in chronological order wasn’t a straightforward ordeal, but here they are. (Links to follow.)

Flight of the Silverbird – Two Steps from Hell – The whole story’s theme.

The Sun is Rising – Britt Nicole

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri – The most perfect theme for the story’s romance. Change thousand to hundred, and it’s like the song was written for this tale.

Lucy – Hanne Hukkelberg

Star Sky – Two Steps from Hell – When you listen, scroll down to one of the first YouTube comments. It contains the lyrics, which I would post here if I wasn’t concerned about copyright issues.

Calypso – At World’s End soundtrack

A Thousand Years – The Piano Guys (cover)

I would add more notes about each song and why they matter to the story, but . . .

Heard any of these pieces before? Do you ever make playlists for your writing? What’s your method of selecting songs? Feel free one or two (or ten)!
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Subplots and Storylines – November 2015

Tracey Dyck 18 Comments

November trundled in with sullen skies of low-slung clouds. For a week it glowered in typical November fashion, all skeleton trees and dead leaves skittering in a northern wind. Grey. Bleak. Winter’s prologue.

But at last the sun broke free, and Autumn revived itself for one last hoorah—a week of blue sky and leaf-raking and lounging on the front lawn just because I could. (In single layers, no less. At 15 degrees Celsius, it was positively gorgeous and rather uncharacteristic for November.)

“Ha!” laughed Winter, and his guffaw blew clouds back in on a high, chilly wind. The first snow arrived. Not much, but enough to initially make for slippery roads.

But you’re not here for a weather report, are you?

These tidbits should be more interesting . . .

November saw me turn twenty! My wonderful family took me out for an elegant lunch at a place that served the most delicious wild rice and mushroom soup I’ve ever tasted. (Alright, so it was the first wild rice and mushroom soup I’d ever tasted. But I still think it was the tastiest.) I then spent the afternoon doing all the best nothings, such as reading. My grandma came over for the evening, I received thoughtful gifts, and then we all had raspberry swirl cheesecake. All in all, I consider myself very blessed.

This month also saw my youngest sister enter the teenage years. Happy birthday, Kit-Kat! I was originally scheduled to work on that day, but at the last minute, was able to switch shifts so I could stay home with her.

I’ve been working full-time. The store has been busy, especially on Black Friday. (Why, oh why, is that day cause for such a hullabaloo?)

A week ago, I spent an afternoon in the city with a very dear friend of mine—a kindred spirit—during which time we ate pizza, shopped, and had our nails done. Time spent with her is like a breath of fresh air for my heart. It’s uncanny how often we’re on the same page life-wise or thought-wise, and we constantly have “What? You too?” moments.

Christmas shopping has commenced. Can you believe Christmas is less than four weeks away?!

And questers. I have obtained my first ever little magical box, a piece of wizardry capable of long distance communication, the capturing of images, and the scheduling of days. Yes. I bought a cell phone! I know, in a world where even little children flaunt these gadgets, it seems a bit unremarkable. But this is my first phone, and my dad found me a fabulous deal. Much excitement.

Now then, as vastly interesting as those little life updates are (at least, more interesting than the weather report), you’re really just scrolling down to read about the story-related stuff, am I right? The books, movies, and writing? I shall tarry no longer.

In movies
I watched only one, Inside Out. It was so good! Plugged In’s review remarks that “Hollywood’s bravest storytellers all work for Pixar,” and I’m inclined to agree. Getting inside the mind of an eleven-year-old girl was fascinating, humorous, and definitely feels-inducing. Sadness was one of my favorite characters.
In books
Heh. Only two.

Omega Dragon by Bryan Davis

Ah, the epic conclusion to a twelve-book adventure! I didn’t think anything could top The Bones of Makaidos, but this one is on par for sure. It made me laugh, cry, and fret over the fate of certain characters. Intense battles alongside heartfelt journeys made for a classic Davis tale.
Something about this book hearkened back to older instalments, which was wonderful, especially considering the dark, apocalyptic setting. Lauren’s scenes especially reminded me of previous tests of the heart encountered by her parents. For some reason, I haven’t connected to Matt and Lauren quite as deeply as I did with Billy and Bonnie, but this book did strengthen my emotional ties to the younger pair.
Again, that ending. That ending! It was glorious. I wish I could say why, but really you just need to read it for yourself.
Before I move on, though . . . I accidentally skipped a chapter. *le gasp* How could I do such a thing? And with one of my favorite series of ever, too?
See, I checked it out of the library and started reading it, only to receive my own copy for my birthday. (The first book, Raising Dragons was a gift for my thirteenth, by the way. Getting the final book for my twentieth was kind of perfect.) Anyway, because I like to keep my books in good condition, I held onto the library copy to bring with me to work, to read on lunch breaks. At home, I picked up wherever I left off with my personal copy. So I went back and forth between the two books for a while. One morning, in a rush to get to work, I must have moved my bookmark one chapter too far. Because as I was reading on break, I had the strange sense that I was missing something. The characters were doing what they’d planned to do, but I was somewhat confused as to how they’d gotten there. “Perhaps Bryan Davis expects the readers to connect the dots,” I thought. “And I am, after all, reading this book in choppy little spurts, so it could very well be that I’ve just forgotten a detail or two. I’m sure it will all make sense soon.” So I kept reading.
It wasn’t until that night, nestled in to read the final (28th) chapter, that I realized, “Oh no! I never read chapter 23!” Quickly, I read what I’d missed, then scanned the following chapters in order to iron out the sequence of events in my mind. Finally, satisfied and no longer confused, I read that last beautiful chapter and said goodbye to characters I’ve grown up with. So bittersweet . . .
One of these days, I plan to read all twelve books back to back.
Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz
Not nearly as epic or emotional as the previous read, but then, I wasn’t expecting it to be. This one is more like a summer action flick–just there to entertain.
Young Alex Rider (a James Bond type of character, only fourteen years old) infiltrates a school for boys located in France. It’s run by a crazy villain and his disturbing cement-block-of-a-woman sidekick. The story follows the same plot pattern as the first book in the series:

-Alex is forced into a mission he doesn’t want
-There’s a period of training/preparation in which he encounters a series of obstacles
-The real mission begins
-He eventually discovers the villain’s plot
-Chase/fight scenes
-The end
-Oh, and there are lots of neat spy gadgets disguised as inconspicuous objects, like a book or an earring or a Discman (yes, this book was written in the early 2000’s).
In writing
I worked on a motley of projects this month, or at least more than this single-minded tortoise usually does. (Well, I’m not always tortoise slow, but never mind all that.)
  • The Brightest Thread // I read over it twice, each in two sittings. I tweaked and fiddled with various things, worried over whether parts of it were paced too fast, and in the end declared, “I love this story!” The ending, you guys. It just makes me giddy, which, at this point, is kind of miraculous. Oh, I also caught wee mistakes I hadn’t seen before, such as miscounting the fairy stewards in the first scene. And speaking of TBT, the beginning of it recently went up for critique on The Author’s Chair (Bryan Davis’s blog)! If you feel so inclined, you may hop on over and nitpick it for me. I’m up for big critiques, little critiques, harsh critiques, and I-love-it critiques. Seriously. Any thoughts at all are appreciated.
  • That secretive ‘Book 1’ I sometimes talk about here // After so much time and effort spent on the aforementioned novella, this ‘first love’ of mine has been calling to me again. So, while in between projects, I read the first few chapters. I’ve a few more edits to complete before I can call it ready, so I figured that a read-over would help get my brain in gear for that. Turns out that the distance afforded by my Five Magic Spindles entry has caused me to fall in love with book 1 all over again. A break away was just what I needed, and now I’m itching to dive back into this thing!
  • Darkened Slumber // Have I mentioned that my brother is entering the Five Magic Spindles contest too? I don’t recall. Anyway, he is. His story is, in his words, a pseudo-feudal Japanese fantasy. I just spent a week editing it for him. He’s done an amazing job cutting it down to size on his own (he was only 1400 words over . . . I’s jealous), after which he turned it over to me. To give you a taste, the tale involves an awesome sword, big bad creatures, and an epic journey flavored with a sprinkle of humor and a dash of heartbreak. (Okay, more like a cup or two of that.)
And that was my November. How was yours, fellow adventurers? What quests have you been pursuing? Some of you are Nano survivors—come and collapse and possibly hibernate until Christmas. (In all honesty, I watched you with some envy at the beginning of the month, as you plotted and planned and psyched each other up. By the end of the month, after hearing about the short nights and sore eyes/wrists and rebellious plots, I’m more relieved that I chose not to shoulder that this year. Perhaps I’ll join the insanity next year?) But do share the war stories!
And for those of you who did not Nano this year, what filled your month? Have you read any of the books I mentioned or watched Inside Out?
Oh, before I bid you adieu, happy belated Thanksgiving to my American friends!
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Unraveling a Mess of Threads

Tracey Dyck 15 Comments
Alternate Title: How I Survived the Editing Axe
As many of you may know, my writing time over the past couple months has been all-consumed by editing The Brightest Thread, my Five Magic Spindles entry. (You can learn more about the contest HERE. I’ve also posted snippets, as well as featured my heroine and villainess for Beautiful People.)
 
 
But I’ve yet to regale you with how the actual process went, aside from brief mentions here and there.

 
First things first: I finished!!!!! At long last, fueled by sheer grit and determination and Two Steps From Hell music (pardon the name), I cut my entry down to exactly 20,000 words. Excuse me while I collapse in relief. Actually no, I can’t collapse. I have a post to share with you. Ahem.

 
I could go into all kinds of detail about how I finally came up with the idea for the story, how I read the Grimm and Perault originals, how I considered various genres before circling back to fantasy . . . But that would take too long. And if there’s one thing this contest has taught me, it’s conciseness.

 
So we’ll skip the beginning stages of my writing process, and simply say that I decided to pants this thing (as in, write by the seat of my pants, with little to no plan), which is not my usual method. What an adventure! Half the time I hadn’t a clue where things were going, and the other half of the time, I had only the most basic directions to follow.
Maybe that’s why the first draft ended up at 29,934 words. A huge problem, considering that the contest rules state 20k is the limit.
I should’ve seen it coming. My first chapter was 3k. THREE THOUSAND WORDS. Practically a seventh of the story! By the time Prince Hadrian entered the scene, I was halfway to the word limit. By the time he was anywhere close to rescuing Luci, my goodness, I had long since waved goodbye to 20k.
About two months after starting, I finished the first draft in a rush of glory and panic, ecstatic over the story I’d just unspooled . . . and freaking out over the task before me. How in the world could I amputate a third of the story? How would the tale survive? How would I survive?
I let my obese novella sit for a week and half, during which time I bemoaned my existence and wished I could pluck Aleida’s wand from the pages and use it to increase the word limit. Even 25k would be a relief!
But alas, it was not to be. And my complaining, which I’m sorry to say continued into the editing process, did nothing to help. Heh. Let that be a lesson to all of you!
 

Anyway, on September 8th, I sat down at my desk, opened the document, steeled myself, and commenced editing.
Now, here is another lesson. Do not try editing anything before reading over it first. Yes, you just wrote the thing. Yes, those words came from your brain. But you do not know them that well. You have been busy planting trees, but before you can prune them you must step back and see the forest, the big picture. I know this. A read-over has always been my first pre-editing step. Until The Brightest Thread. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why I even dreamed of skipping this step. Things may have gone more smoothly if I hadn’t.
So as I said, I jumped right into editing with high ambitions. I hefted my sharpened axe and attacked chapter 1.
And snipped off a teensy tiny few hundred words. “Well,” I said to myself. “That’s because this first chapter includes so much important setup. Surely the following chapters carry more fluff I can cull.”
Ha. Wrong.
In the name of conciseness again, I shall sum up that first miserable editing pass like this: my efforts only managed to get rid of about 3k words. Oh joy, oh bliss.
I then decided to lay down that ineffective axe and read over my existing material, something I should have done in the first place. Getting a bird’s-eye view of the story was helpful, but my next pass was still hard. I worked on it in a nonlinear fashion, combing over and over and over certain parts that I absolutely knew had the potential to shrink. I skipped from one spot to the other, targeting the easiest areas first and working my way to the grit-my-teeth-and-sacrifice-the-gorgeous-words areas. And when I thought I’d trimmed off all I could, I went back and shaved off more.
My techniques? Why, I’m so glad you asked! See, I’m not just rambling on about myself here. I really do want to offer you some nuggets of wisdom so that you have some tools next time your work falls under the knife.
  • Streamline. Streamline everything. Get that conversation right to the point. Put the characters where they need to be so that you don’t spend paragraphs moving them there. Every single scene must carry its weight.
  • Speaking of conversations (ha, see what I did there? No? Just me? Okay, never mind) . . . Ahem. Speaking of conversations, take a giant machete to your dialogue. Brevity is the soul of wit. Your dialogue might sparkle. It might amuse. It might snap with fiery spirit. But if it’s not serving to move the story along, it’s baggage. You can also use less speaker tags in favor of better action beats if that helps.
  • Attack the descriptions. You’d be surprised how many blanks a reader will fill in his or her imagination. Instead of spending a long paragraph describing the weather or a room or a person, pick one description that will pack a punch. Choose the most vivid, or the most necessary. All else must go.
  • Make a list of your scenes if you haven’t already. Having every piece of the story laid out made it much easier to see what was on the table, like having a map on which to mark out a battle plan. I even went so far as to write down the purpose of each scene. This helped me center each one around it’s reason for existence, thus trimming extra fluff.
  • Minor characters. Which ones are actually necessary? I needed that guard because he provided an important revelation for Luci, my heroine. But I didn’t need that oblivious elderly maid. She no longer exists. Poor Meris. Or another example: I needed at least one minor character to illustrate an important change in Luci’s circumstances, but the scene held two or three. I shortened the laughs (it was an amusing scene, and one of my favorites) by keeping it down to one minor character. You can also combine characters if possible. I did this once.
  • Subplots. Again, what can you afford to cut? Yes, they may be delicious twists, but if you can simplify or get rid of them, it goes a long way. I sacrificed at least one subplot concerning the villainess.
  • Enter your scene late and leave it early. Does the scene take half a page to get to the meat, the really interesting part? Start right there. Forget the intro. And make sure you end off sooner rather than later, at a place that will make the reader want to keep going. This piece of advice was huge for me!
  • Look for unnecessary words and banish them to the abyss. There’s nothing wrong with adverbs, but when every word counts, a punchier verb is often the better choice. “Whispered” is shorter than “said softly.” “Trembling” is shorter than “nervously twitching.” I Googled lists of unnecessary words and searched my manuscript for them. I was able to sluice off hundreds in one afternoon. Some examples of unneeded words or phrases are: could, start/started to, began/began to, that, then, somewhat, somehow, really, completely, very, say, all, just.

Some of this I simply realized myself. The point about starting late and leaving early I picked up from an article on Go Teen Writers. The entire post was helpful. And a couple more were given me by Rachel Heffington @ The Inkpen Authoress. (I discovered that her entry for Five Glass Slippers two years ago had been about as oversized as mine to begin with . . . yet she managed to trim it down, AND she won a place in the collection. Inspired by her success, I emailed her asking for advice, which she graciously offered. The advice about dialogue and description were largely from her.)

Because graphs are fun, and because graphs relating to wordcount data are even more fun, I made some!

This one displays my first draft wordcount as it went up to almost 30k.

And this one displays my cutting progress, as I shaved 10k excess down to zero. It was pretty intense at the end there. The last week or two, on every spare day or half-day off, I holed up in my room to work on cutting. Some days I put in as many hours as a full shift at work, emerging bleary eyed to update my family on progress.

I suppose that saying I went at it with an axe is inaccurate, because as hard as I tried to cut away entire scenes . . . I guess I’m too good at pacing? Most of the scenes were actually necessary. And trust me, I reassessed and reassessed many times to be sure. So I compressed like crazy. I think I vacuum-packed the story. I didn’t hack; I whittled. Oh, and I wasn’t just cutting: I edited too. Some of the corrections required adding words rather than subtracting.

Now I hope that what’s left is a pithy story, rich despite its brevity–not a sack of story bones with no meat left on them. I really hope I haven’t sucked it dry.

You can see how crazy the final sprint was: on October 26th, I started with 899 excess words remaining, and shrank it 54 excess words. Only 54! I would’ve wrapped it up right then and there, but at that point it was late, and I needed to sleep for work the next day. Oh, did that bite! I wanted so badly to be done. But I woke up early and managed to finish before heading out. Woohoo!

And now . . . Now the cutting is finished. I succeeded. I can hardly believe it. Every other step of the way was full of doubt. I even considered not entering the contest at all, for the sake of preserving my story. But I still have the old drafts, and if I don’t win this year, I’ll be more than happy to re-expand The Brightest Thread. There’s so much I didn’t get to explore, even in the chubby first draft.

For now, though, all that’s left is to read it over a few times to make sure it’s polished to the best of my ability, and then it gets sent to the judges!

But questers! My faithful blogglings! I FINISHED! Hallelujah!

And you have finished reading this lengthy post. So much for being concise, eh? Go on: share your own tips for shrinking stories. I’d love to hear them!

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