Cutting Things in Fiction Writing

Before you cut, you must add to your story. But after that, you must cut ruthlessly.

The Overarching Rules of Cutting for Authors

• The one rule to rule them all: Listen to your editor!
• Cut a lot of unnecessary words, but not as much as Hemingway would've.
• Kill your darlings. Then sneak them back into a later draft.
• Cut bad suggestions. Stay true to your author's vision for the work. Reject any advice as you see fit.

Cut from Characterization

• Cut duplicative characters. Merge two characters into one.
• Cut unnecessary characters.
• Cut the extra sidekick. Don't have two sidekick characters. One BFF or wingman is enough.
• Cut writer characters. Stop writing about yourself.
• Cut the helpful, reassuring, or supportive characters out of scenes. Stop being so nice to your protagonist. They must suffer.
• Cut out-of-character dialogue.
• Cut out-of-character actions. Yes, your characters must change as they arc, but they need a reason for this.
• Cut "explaining what I already know to myself" type of thoughts. Viewpoint characters should think naturally. We don't tend to think about things we already know well.
• Cut describing to myself a person I know well. The heroine's thoughts shouldn't describe her best friend's hair and eye color when she walks into the room.
• Cut the hero or heroine describing themself while looking in a mirror. Not good.
• Cut mixed up POV. If you want someone else's POV, too bad. Just show body language and voice tone.
• Cut any head-hopping. Although Frank Herbert did it very well in Dune.
• Cut self-referencing verbs. Your protagonist doesn't know she's seeing or thinking or noticing or realizing.
• Cut accidental telepathy. One character should not read another's mind. Show body language instead.
• Cut accidental omniscience. One character cannot see the other's body language if they're behind them, such as in the back seat of the car. You can't see an eyeroll if texting or speaking on the phone, unless it's video. But you can't FaceTime in a regency romance.

Cutting Scenes

• Cut backstory scenes or descriptions. Weave and dance instead. Drip-drip-drip.
• Cut excessive flashbacks. These are the ultimate backstory, but many good books have them. Make them impactful, brief, and well-written.
• Cut character elucidation scenes. That's not action. They say every scene should either advance the plot or show characterization. That "or" is old-school and should nowadays be "and," if you ask me (you didn't).
• Cut getting out of bed.
• Cut driving into town.
• Cut choosing what to wear.
• Cut grown-up scenes.
• Cut training or preparation scenes. Except in Kung Fu Panda.
• Cut autobiography masquerading as fiction.
• Cut accidental wrong-setting beat errors (you don't "change hands on the steering wheel" while at the beach on a towel). This tends to happen when you change scene settings during revisions.
• Cut info dump description of settings, of magic systems, of weapons, of dystopian society rules, of medical cases, of futuristic technology, unless you're Tom Clancy talking about submarine sonar.
• Cut info dump dialogue. We can see what you're doing, you know.
• Cut excessive scene transitions. Don't have a single conversation continue across the subway ride, a restaurant dinner, a taxi home, and end in an apartment at home.
• Cut duplicative scenes. You've written the same scene twice. It happens.
• Cut anachronisms. They didn't have wristwatches in Ancient Greece.

Cut from Dialogue

• Cut "said" but not if you're going to replace it with fancy verb tags.
• Cut dialogue tags completely. Use body language or other beats instead.
• Cut "interrogated" or similar. Use "asked."
• Cut contractible phrases in dialogue. People talk in contractions, except when being formal (or lying).
• Cut reversed dialogue tags (use "Mary said" rather than old-style "said Mary")
• Cut clunky dialogue words (e.g. ought, shall, etc.)
• Cut zombie body parts phrases. On hearing his voice, her head spun around (like an owl or a zombie?). His eyes rolled (across the room).
• Cut excessive over-sold emotion (making your character "cry" won't make the readers cry; build emotion slowly and make it earned)
• Cut the non-PG words (they aren't necessary and can alienate readers)
• Cut the hidden non-PG words in abbreviations
• Cut the text-speak in dialogue
• Cut didactic dialogue. Make your point with more subtlety somehow.
• Cut the over-sold accents. Throw in a few quirky words; don't put apostrophes in every second word.
• Cut the slang words. Often overdone.
• Cut repetition in dialogue. Try not to use the same words twice, even if different characters speak them. ("Did you find my poodle?" "Yes, I found your poodle." ... instead: "Did you find my poodle?" ... "It's so tiny!")
• Cut overlong dialogue (if the scene looks like a movie script)
• Cut euphemisms. Maybe. It depends on who's speaking.

Cut from the Plot

• Cut too-slow scenes
• Cut depictions of boredom
• Cut coincidences (everything in the plot needs a reason)
• Cut repetitive plot sequences
• Cut repetitive scenes
• Cut repetitive settings. Change cafe and restaurant scenes to other more interesting places.
• Cut off-genre scenes. Don't put literary introspection in a genre thriller. Keep it PG in a sweet romance.
• Cut too-convenient resolutions of issues. Make it logical and earned.

Cut from Your Writing Style

• Cut weasel words (e.g., somewhat, mostly, nearly, almost).
• Cut boosting words (e.g., very, especially, totally).
• Cut "it" (replace with a more specific subject)
• Cut "that" (often can simply be removed)
• Cut wordiness in general
• Cut adjectives (if overused)
• Cut adverbs
• Cut repeated words, even if they aren't a typo. Rephrase to avoid.
• Cut bad sentence starter words (e.g. anyway, and, but, however, etc.)
• Cut your crutch words.
• Cut purple prose. The thesaurus is not always your friend.
• Cut pretentious words (e.g. thus, albeit, alas, etc.)
• Cut old-style words (e.g. fretting, go forth, etc.)
• Cut vague nouns (e.g. thing, stuff, etc.)
• Cut superficial descriptive words (e.g. wonderful, amazing, beautiful, etc.)
• Cut "started to" or "began to". Just have it begin instead.
• Cut the glue words and other overdone small words.
• Cut pseudo-second person (i.e., "you" in non-dialogue)
• Cut cliches.
• Cut didactic exposition. Don't preach. Let the story and its ending make your point.
• Cut the text-speak in narrative (and dialogue)
• Cut tautologies
• Cut redundant words
• Cut contractible phrases in both dialogue and non-dialogue. Use the contraction forms.
• Cut prepositions from the end of sentences where they're at.
• Cut accidental British spelling (e.g., amongst, towards).
• Cut editor peeve words (e.g. literally, actually, got, gotten, etc.)
• Cut politically incorrect words
• Cut gender-specific words (e.g. "mailman")
• Cut fake words. Undoubtably isn't a real word. But bigly is.
• Cut exclamation marks. Although not as much as you used to 100 years ago.
• Cut author intrusion. Stop showing off with words. You don't exist.
• Cut alliteration. It's distracting.
• Cut metaphors. They only belong in arty literature. In genre fiction (i.e. thrillers, mysteries, romance), they divert the reader from immersion in the scene.
• Cut similes (same reason). Opinions on this may differ.
• Cut rhyme. It's not a poem.
• Cut country-specific idioms (e.g. American, British, Canadian). Rephrase to cross cultures.
• Cut sensitive words or issues. There are many sub-cases.
• Cut unpopular words. Nobody likes "cheese" for some reason.

Cut from Your Punctuation Style

• Cut semicolons. Only a handful per book. A few more in a literary novel.
• Cut colons. Use commas.
• Cut single quotes. American style rarely uses single quotes. Learn the rules.
• Cut hyphens out of words. They're so 1900's.
• Cut commas. Ten per sentence is too many.
• Cut double spaces. Anywhere.
• Cut parentheses (round brackets). Save for non-fiction.
• Cut square bracketed text. In fiction, these are to-do markers or placeholders.
• Cut curly brackets (used in non-fiction)
• Cut $ (use "dollars")
• Cut % (use "percent")
• Cut most other weird punctuation characters. Spell it out as words instead.
• Cut small numbers (not "5"; use "five")

Final Advice

Measure once, cut twice. Or something like that.