Edits: Do they make your story shorter or longer?

[Devor]

Simple question. When you go back to edit your stories, do they wind up getting shorter or longer?

I find that most often my narration is missing something, and that an extra paragraph here or a whole new scene there is usually what I need to help polish, explain and bridge the gaps. How about you?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Shorter. In fact I've measured; when I go back to revise a chapter, on average I make it about 30% shorter. (Unless I'm doing major restructuring; when I'm just doing a prose pass, the 30% number is pretty consistent. 1,000 word passages tend to drop to about 700.) I tend to be pretty wordy on exploratory drafts, and frequently put in little sentences or asides that turn out not to be necessary later on, and they get excised.

 

[Telcontar]

Certainly shorter, though not nearly to the extent that Ben's do. I don't know of any simple figure for it, but I try to trim out whole passages at once - unneeded exposition, purple prose, etc. I remember reading in On Writing by Stephen King that he tried to edit out ten percent of a rough draft in his revisions. I sincerely doubt I cut that much, but it is a figure I keep in mind.

 

[TWErvin2]

I generally break even, or pretty close with novels. With short stories, I usually cut about 5% or so.

 

[Klee Shay]

The only one I specifically kept track of for that particular reason got longer. It was a little over 9000 words when I started the edit and was over 12,000 when I was done.

 

[Devor]

The only one I specifically kept track of for that particular reason got longer. It was a little over 9000 words when I started the edit and was over 12,000 when I was done.

Good to know I'm not alone.

 

[The Din]

I'm knee-deep in editing my first novel, so who knows if I'm doing it right, but... I find myself deleting roughly 15%, adding 10%, then deleting another 5%. After that I usually rewrite every second paragraph and start the whole process again.

 

[Butterfly]

There is a book I would recommend to anyone currently editing, redrafting, rewriting, or even just thinking about it.

It's called - Self-editing for fiction writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.

If you're having trouble, there are some brill pointers in it to help you along, as well as good advice from an editor's POV.

 

[JCFarnham]

I'm an add-er when it comes to editing. On a first pass through a story I tend to heavily limit descriptions and rely on dialogue and actions. In edit mode, I'll usually add in all the tasty narrative I missed the first time.

I've also found it depends on what style I'm writing in. Typical third person fantasy is quite sparse before edit. Science fiction is a bit more word dense, with first person private eye-type narratives coming out on top. So as you can see I'm forever editting my 1st person UF novel down in word count, getting rid of superfluous things, where as all others I tend to add words to.

 

[zizban]

For me, they tend to be a little longer or just about the same length.

 

[Kelise]

It depends on the edit, as I do a few. On the first edit it always ends up a lot longer as my first draft is basically getting plot in order. I never have enough description or tone. Then the final edit makes it shorter (than the second draft) as I take out the unnecessary words and generally make it more eloquent.

I run my work through those web programs that make a 'cloud' of your most used words. I always tend to over-use something unnecessary.

So it ends up a lot longer than the first draft, but then eventually shorter than the second.

 

[grahamguitarman]

The last edit I did I ended up longer as the story needed expanding in places, but the word count for some sections ended up shorter as I trimmed bits out.

I think a lot depends on how you write, some people want to create the main story arc, then go back and flesh out with additional details later as needed. Others want to create a fully developed novel on their first pass, then go back and edit out the excess prose where they have over-written.

Neither approach is better or worse than the other BTW, its just differences in approach to the craft of writing.

 

[Insa]

With the collab story I am doing with my friends, I expect it will get longer - we've written the first draft very basically, not paying attention to the language style and the atmospheric details and focusing more on the plot line.

Then again, there is a lot we plan to cut and change, so who knows, it may get shorter.

 

[SeverinR]

I usually add to, because when I write first I get it down, then describe it better in editing, but
I have edited out some over description or info dump.

 

[Addison]

Mine get shorter and longer every time I edit. I think it depends on how you look at the book each time you edit. Before you actually go back and add or delete stuff you should read it two times; once as an editor, once as a reader.