The Kindest Cuts of All - A Guide to Editing

Having exhorted you to slash and burn in a recent post, I thought it might be helpful to give you an idea of the kind of things you should be cutting when you are in editing mode.

• Take the scissors to any adverbs (or -ly word). You shouldn't use two words if one will do, so instead of sounded loudly, blared; instead of walked briskly, hurried – and so on.
• Be wary of too many adjectives. When you are writing descriptively, it is easy to fall into a pattern of phrasing: an adjective and then a noun, for example tall tree, or two adjectives and a noun – tall, green tree. You need to keep an eye on this to vary the intensity of your description, so make sure you use various combinations of adjectives and nouns and sometimes go for broke and don't use any adjectives at all.
• Anything overwritten - see above.
• Anything trite - cliches, sayings, hackneyed phrases.
• Any repetitions. If you have used a word in the previous sentence, think of a different way of saying the same thing next time around. Too much repetition suggests either a lack of vocabulary, or sloppy writing.
• Anything that doesn't ring true - if your character wouldn't say or do something, get rid of it.
• Anything you stumble over when you read your work aloud - if it doesn't flow it needs to go.

If you are as ruthless as I recommend you should be, you will probably lose a significant percentage of your work. That is a very good thing (even if it doesn't feel like it at the time). Your prose will be infinitely stronger for being more concentrated.

If in doubt, chuck it out.