Sunday Snippet

The Words, Words, Words ... or Not Edition

I don’t know if this is true or not, but I read that Ernest Hemingway was once bet he couldn’t write a short story in only six words. He accepted the challenge and wrote:

“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

Wow. What a powerful story! When words are your stock-in-trade, writing fewer of them is hard. I just finished revisions on Help Wanted, Cowboy, book 3 of my Juniper Falls Ranch series. It’s going back to my editor tomorrow after I go through it one more time. I took out words and added words, ending up with a net gain of 1,453 words. I’ll tell you the truth, that’s unusual for me. I don’t add words in revisions, generally, I take them out. Go figure.

As an editor, I am a ruthless word cutter. I can slash passivity, ponderous adverbial modifiers, dialogue tags that appear too frequently, and filter words with all the precision of a samurai. Those things aren’t author voice issues, those are what drag a story down. Every author has their “word”--the one they repeat without even knowing it. We call them echoes. Mine is little, although I do have a list that I check for with every manuscript, including still, so, well, when, then, even, and another biggie, just. I once edited a book and when I ran it through my checklist of repeated words, the word then showed up 893 times in a 256-page book. That means the word then appeared on each page at least three times. I stripped out 627 of them. Whew!

Do readers appreciate brevity? I have no idea. Look at all the people who love the Outlander books, every single one of which is over 259,000 to nearly 500,000 words. I loved the Outlander books, although I confess, the editor in me thought the stories could’ve been told with fewer words. That said, I‘ve read every damn word of all nine books and would do it again in a heartbeat because Diana Gabaldon’s world-building draws me in and I’m stuck there until the last page.

So... words. Do you skim long books? Do you read every word? Does word count or page count play into your decision whether to read a story? What about your favorite authors? Confess now, have you ever read a book by an author who is an auto-buy for you and thought, “This book could be shorter.” (No names, please!)

Here’s a fun little exercise for you, whether you’re a reader or a writer. Let’s do the Hemingway challenge. Write me a six-word story down in the comments. I’ll choose one at random and send that person a $10 Amazon gift card so they can buy more words.

Here’s mine (I’m no Ernest Hemingway!): Yellow crocuses, endless rain, it’s spring.

Gratitude for This Week: Grandboy as the Chairman in Mary Poppins Junior-- what joy to see him onstage again. The kid is quite an actor! Tulips are peeking up; A walk with Husband, Revisions are done; New Outlander has started, I’m already all in!

Stay well, speak out when you can--it’s the only way we can save our democracy, always choose kindness, and most of all, mes amis, stay grateful!