As I sit listening to the wails of my three year old, who is most despondent from having been told he must clean his room or suffer the execution of his toys into the eternal bid of waste, I think about the cuts I just made to my novel Breeders. I am struck by the fact that I just cut a seventeen page prologue down to just nine and feel none of the sadness that my wailing son feels. Therefore I am sure, that it must be a good decision.
I have come a long way over the years. At first, as a teen writer, I was loathe to cut even a word from my work. Knowing that everything that flowed from my brain was pure platinum. Now, an older and much more season writer I am aware that sometimes, I can add too much. Therefore leading to a cut.
I like to read fast paced novels without the lag. Novels that grip me from page one and keep me turning through the night until bleary eyed and mostly incoherent I close the book with bliss on my face, sated by the feeding of books. Yes, I am a book Vampire at heart.
So when I write a story, and do not find that I myself want to keep turning the pages to see what happens, I know I need to cut. There are a great many books I have read that I believe could have been better had they simply cut a page or hundred from it. However, it is not mine to judge. I can only go forth and cut apart the little slownesses of my own novels to hopefully create works that people want to keep reading.
Thanx!