{"id":362,"date":"2012-01-21T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-21T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2012\/01\/21\/pruning-that-manuscrip\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:42:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:42:35","slug":"pruning-that-manuscrip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/pruning-that-manuscrip\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruning that Manuscript"},"content":{"rendered":"
This Christmas, I was gifted a beautiful Norfolk Pine\u2014three feet tall, its branches spanning a goodly distance in all directions. After a few weeks, the branches started to dry out, needles began to adorn the floor instead of the plant. I didn\u2019t understand why. I was very careful to follow all the rules of caring for this plant. I didn\u2019t over-water, I didn\u2019t under-water, it received the proper amount of light\u2026so what was wrong? What I discovered was the pretty red foil decorating the plain pot had become an instrument of death. The foil looked lovely, but it wasn\u2019t allowing for proper drainage. Each time I watered the plant\u2014even though it wasn\u2019t too much water\u2014the little bit of water that drained out the bottom of the pot got trapped in that foil. Cumulatively, it caused the soil to remain too wet and the roots of this beautiful tree began to drown. <\/div>\n
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I decided to accept the impossible mission of saving this suddenly-becoming wretched plant. I ripped off the pretty foil. I moved the plant to the bathroom where it would be well and properly humidified by shower steam. I clipped dead branches. At first, I didn\u2019t clip all the dead branches. I still wanted the plant to look proportioned and pretty\u2014and after all, dead Norfolk Pine branches almost look alive. They\u2019re just a little crispy to the touch, is all.  <\/div>\n
That didn\u2019t seem to work. The plant continued to deteriorate.  So, I trimmed more dead branches. Now the plant was an odd lopsided thing that probably wouldn\u2019t even qualify to be a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but I told myself it was for the best\u2026the only way to save it. Still, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to clip all<\/i> the dead branches. If I did that, the height would be gone, and much of the remaining sides.<\/div>\n
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The plant continued to deteriorate. Finally, I decided I had to take drastic measures (yes, it took this long). I had to cut all the dead limbs. It was the plant\u2019s only chance. So, now, my beautiful three-feet-tall Norfolk Pine is one-foot-tall, but,<\/i> it\u2019s even on all sides, the branches are green, the needles are supple, and the plant? Well\u2026.IT LIVES!<\/b><\/div>\n
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As I was doing my final pruning, the age-old comparison came to me about how we need to allow God to prune us, cut off all sin in our lives in order for us to have rich, productive, and holy lives. Something else came to me, as well: As writers, this is what we sometimes need to do to our manuscripts. Sometimes what we feel makes the story shine (beautiful shiny foil) is the thing that\u2019s causing the story to suffer. Sometimes, what we feel is necessary to give our story height and depth (dead branches that don\u2019t quite \u201clook\u201d dead) is really the thing that\u2019s keeping the manuscript from soaring to its full potential. <\/div>\n
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So, my friends, don\u2019t be afraid to chop away. When you\u2019re editing, don\u2019t look at how much you really liked that subplot, and decide off-hand that it doesn\u2019t need to be cut. Don\u2019t look at the long description that\u2019s beautiful but stifles the action, as necessary. Don\u2019t look at the 20-page prologue that\u2019s full of backstory as if it contains all the information the reader needs to know now. Maybe those things are just shiny foil and dead branches that are actually killing your story instead of allowing it to grow. After all, what\u2019s better, a pruned manuscript that breathes life into readers, or a long manuscript that goes nowhere and dies on the vine? <\/div>\n
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As writers, our goal is to create a complete world, three-dimensional characters, a compelling plot. As you edit, keep that goal in mind. Sometimes we follow all the rules of writing (I watered my Pine just as I should have)–our grammar is perfect, our point-of-view is on target, our manuscript formatting is flawless–but still something lacks. Look at each scene and ask yourself if it moves the story forward. Does it develop character? Does it create or resolve conflict? If it doesn\u2019t do something that\u2019s truly necessary, prune that baby. Sometimes clipping a sentence here and there will do, but sometimes, you\u2019ll need to nix the scene altogether. And don’t just ask <\/i>yourself if the scene does what it’s supposed to (it’s easy to say “yes”), explain <\/i>to yourself why you think it does. You’d be surprised how often you think you know why something works, but when trying to explain it to someone else, you can’t. Generally, that’s because it doesn’t really work!<\/div>\n
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Don\u2019t be afraid to edit aggressively (prune all the dead weight, even if it makes your story lopsided for a while). Keep your goal in mind, cut what needs to be cut and then flesh out the story again. Do that, and you\u2019ll end up with a beautiful manuscript that is full of life.<\/div>\n
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Happy writing!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Christmas, I was gifted a beautiful Norfolk Pine\u2014three feet tall, its branches spanning a goodly distance in all directions. After a few weeks, the branches started to dry out, needles began to adorn the floor instead of the plant. I didn\u2019t understand why. I was very careful to follow all the rules of caring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[18,241],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing-tips","tag-pruning-a-manuscript"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}