Thursday, May 1, 2008

May 1, 2008: 10% of my writing is fluff

Apparently, anyhow. I have a great eBook called "The Ten Percent Solution" by Ken Rand, which states that nearly every piece of writing can have ten percent of the words cut without making a difference.

I used it today on a character summary from Raoul. The first version, at 145 words:

At thirty-one years old, Forrest's hockey career is nearing its end, although he won't admit it to himself. Last year, he put his heart and soul into hockey as he never had before, and it won him a trade to the top team in the league after a vicious bidding war for his services. The night the trade was confirmed, though, his fiancée died in a car accident that also put Forrest out of commission for most of the off-season. He battled back, and was in good shape by the start of the season, but he pulled his groin on the last day of training. The trainers have done everything they can, but the injury heals briefly and then gets worse again, and they have no idea how to fix it. Until, that is, a groin specialist named Tess applies to work with the team...

And the revised one, at 119 words (which is actually an 18% reduction but who's counting? :)

Thirty-one year old Forrest's hockey career is in jeopardy. Last year, he put his heart and soul into hockey as never before, and it won him a trade to the league's top team. The night the trade was confirmed, though, his fiancée died in a car accident that also put Forrest out of commission for most of the off-season. He battled back and was recovered by the start of the season, but he pulled his groin on the last day of training. The trainers have done everything they can, but the injury heals briefly and then gets worse again, and they've run out of ideas. Until, that is, a groin specialist named Tess applies to work with the team...

To my eyes, the sense of it is the same but it's much tighter. I applied this eBook to "Seven" as well, although not on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, and it's a really effective technique.

I can't believe it's May already. A third into the year, and I don't think I've done a third of what I want to do in 2008. Must keep moving!

Writing Project: Raoul's planning
Time Planned: 2 hours
Time Spent: 2 hours
Favourite Part: getting to know Forrest a little better

Exercise: 40 minutes elliptical (no weights until after the two half-marathons are complete)
One Fun Thing I Did Today: watched "Corner Gas" at lunch

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