19 Comments

lol the garbage bag!

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So much good advice packed in this post.

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Great tips--thank you! I tend to trim better at the line level, so I appreciate your larger-scope, trimming tips. Your post made me think of Ursula K. Le Guin's writing craft book called Steering the Craft. She includes an exercise in it where you trim a 400 word narrative down to 200 words, while still keeping the narrative clear and impactful.

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These are great! And omg yes, I felt that trash bag being brought out as I read it 😅

I love seeing word counts! Idk why but I find it fascinating. ALL THOSE WORDS

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Oct 27, 2023Liked by Jodi Meadows

Really helpful tips. Thank you Jodi! I tend to be an overwriter so I will definitely need these

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Even though I’m not writing a book - I see a lot here I can use for the letters I write to my som. Thank you!

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Given my first draft of a novel was twice the length it should be... I'll be revisiting this post a lot!

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I'm doing a cut, so this is excellent advice. Thanks! I've dropped about 2500 from the first 9 chapters. It reads so much better.

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I have a huge overwriting problem - your wordcounts look fine to me lol

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