SCHOLASTIC AND THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY

I just received some cool news while in the midst of my YA rewrite: Scholastic has purchased the paperback book club rights for THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY! It should publish in April.

THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS

Before Christmas, my brother and I started brainstorming what our pro-fighter (boxing, wrestling, etc.) names would be. (This was one of those car-ride conversations...) I decided mine would be Lightning Bolt Larry. (Got a nice ring eh?)

...So my brother took it upon himself to make me a shirt bearing my fighting name. To wear, of course, when I need to attack some new writing job.

Right now, I'm attacking my editor's notes for my forthcoming YA. And man, do I mean attack. I've already slashed 30K words out of it. Ouch.

Back to work!

CUTTING MANUSCRIPTS: DIALOGUE TAGS

Back when I first started writing full-length novels, 30K words was often a struggle. Now, the opposite is true: as I recently began revising my first indie release, an NA rom com, what started out as a 104K-word project quickly ballooned to 122K (and that was after I'd cut six chapters).

I didn't think I could cut another full chapter, so I asked via social media for authors' fave cutting techniques.

One suggested attacking unnecessary dialogue tags. It's turned out to be the absolute best (and simplest) revising technique I've discovered in years. Along with an unnecessary tag often comes unnecessary exposition. Whole paragraphs were deleted as I attacked the manuscript; conversations are now short and snappy and to the point (a plus, I think, when reading an e-book). Putting my focus on those unnecessary tags has brought the manuscript back down to the original 104K words.

I know I'm never going to read another book now without zeroing in on those tags (they'll bug me every bit as much as small talk in dialogue, and that can make me literally hurl a book across a room).

What are your own favorite manuscript-trimming techniques?