by Cindy K. Sproles @CindyDevoted

Editing is difficult. Especially when you’ve worked hard to pen the perfect words. It’s tough to look at a scene or a paragraph and come to the realization that it needs to go. I’ve found this is especially difficult for new writers. Once they get those phrases and emotions within their written words, they become detrimentally attached.

It is not uncommon to hear well-seasoned writers talk about the cutting process. Truthfully the trimming process is no easier for them than it is for a new writer except that they have learned those words can best be utilized elsewhere. They’ve learned to sacrifice the few for the many. (I realize that sounds a little Spockish, but it’s true.) Our crafted words become very sentimental and rightfully so. Long hours of thought have gone into the work-in-progress. It must be nothing short of a masterpiece. But is it?

I once heard it said, much is lost but for a little more effort. Truer words have never been spoken. Just a little more sweat. A tad more work and our piece will drive home the perfect thought. It will move readers. It’s everything we’d hoped it would be but we must be willing to accept the challenge and let go of what drags the work down.

Editors are wonderfully talented individuals who have a keen sense of “just enough” and not “too much.” Their gifts allow them to see the redundancies that our eyes look past. It’s important to learn to trust your editor and know their intention is not to rewrite your work or destroy it but to be the eye of clarity. They are your friend, not your enemy, and sometimes, they get a bad wrap when they dig into a scene and find that for the reader, it just doesn’t work. A good editor makes the writer look amazing.

The art of writing requires writers to learn, listen, edit, and rephrase. What is clear in the writer’s mind may be muddy to the reader. I sat in a class once where an agent gave us one question to answer in regards to editing our words. “Does your reader really care?” You care, but honestly, does your reader care if a tablecloth is filled with red and white checks and an extra salt shaker is on the table? Does it matter? That question, in and of itself, changed my thought process on giving up words. It was hard to answer in the beginning, but as I practiced, I learned the value in that one question and how it took my work from wordy to crisp. Here are a few additional thoughts on editing those words we love so much.

Share the details so the reader is part of the action:
As the writer, you know the most intimate details about your characters. Until you share those details, the reader meets a void that will make them close the book and never finish. Give your reader what is necessary to grasp a keen understanding of your characters. Unless an in-depth description is needed, allow the reader to use their mind’s eye to fill in certain details. It builds that fictional bubble and it makes your writing tight and concise. Give them what is important to push the story ahead. Cut the fluff and add the story. Fill in emotion and show a good description.

Too much back story bores the reader:
Part of the fun in reading is learning about the character as you go. Little snippets of their lives are revealed bit by bit rather than, what publishing calls, “information dump.” As the writer, we feel that we need to explain every tiny detail to the reader when in fact, readers are pretty smart people. Let the reader have their fun. Let them live inside the world you’ve created. Allow your reader to experience and grow to love your character as they walk their paths with them. Take away the unnecessary description, remove the history that is unimportant to anyone other than you, and let the story move ahead.

Make fiction believable:
Even in a fiction story, the reader will draw a line in the sand for believability. If you cross over it, they label it corny or worse, unbelievable. I talked with an author once whose protagonist rode his horse over a cliff into the crashing waves and sharp rocks below. Then without hesitation, the two swam to the shore and galloped off. (A shore with jagged rocks and crashing water?) It was unbelievable. A thousand-pound horse plus his rider cannot leap from a high cliff and hope that the waves are deep enough to prevent them from being killed from the impact or impaled by the rocks. A running horse and rider are not going to hesitate to time the waves hitting at just the right moment. If they should survive the fall, both would certainly have to take a little time to get their wits about them before riding (or hobbling) into the sunset. The truth is, your reader wants a story that can ring true and they’re quite put off when you insult their intelligence. Make your action true to life. Don’t assume because they do it in the movies, that your reader will bite. Edit out that unbelievable part and rewrite it into a believable scene.

The best advice I have for aspiring writers is, “Don’t marry your words.” There are always better ways to say something. Keener ways to phrase. Better twists.” Often these words of advice fall on deaf ears. Don’t become a statistic by marrying your words. Instead, form a healthy relationship, snipping and pruning so growth can occur. There are great values and validity in learning to self-edit. It takes practice but once you get the knack, you’ll never let go.

Cindy K. Sproles is an author, speaker, and conferenceteacher. She is the cofounder of ChristianDevotions.us and the executive editor of ChristianDevotions.us and InspireaFire.com. Cindy is the managing editor forStraight Street Books and SonRise Devotionals, both imprints of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. She is an award-winning and best-selling author and the director of the Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Visit Cindy at www.cindysproles.com. @cindydevoted