Hacking Away At Your Word Count

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by Linda Thorne

If you’re an author who has ever entered a writing contest, you’ve been subjected to maximum word count requirements. I found this to be the norm in contests asking for part or all of a work-in-progress novel and in every short story contest I ever entered.

It’s amazing how you can reduce those words. I’ve managed to take a 3500 word short story and reduce it to 1000 while still keeping the story line.

My first book, Just Another Termination,started off at 120,000 words. It was awful. So much needed cut. I took out a couple of non-essential characters and their roles, but there was a more fat to trim. I had way too much detail regarding how some events came about. I described how my character and her husband moved from LA to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and gave way too many details. Boring. When I finally published my book it was down to 80,000 words. 

I published this post somewhere three years ago. I'm not sure whether it was here on Make Mine Mystery or on Novel Spaces. I'm bringing it back re-written a little differently. 

I’ve heard that the current preferred length for mystery, thrillers, and romance is 70,000 to 90,000 words; although I personally consider 90,000 high, and 75,000 to 80,000 a better word count.

Things I’ve done to reduce word count:

• Drop one of the subplots. I had too many in the first draft.

• Get rid of a few characters. I had to do that with a couple of characters in Just Another Termination and hated it. I may have one too many in my current work-in-progress, A Promotion to Die For. I don’t know yet.

• I know you are supposed to take out back story in the beginning and trickle it throughout. This has been hard in A Promotion to Die For, as so much back story is needed for a murder 30 years in my character's past. Critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Susan Isaacs wrote a book called, Lily White, where each chapter was either in the present time or in the past. The past chapters were in italics and the present ones in regular font until both stories met toward the end. I enjoyed this. In A Promotion to Die For I only have a few chapters that are written in back story. The people and occurrences in that history from three decades earlier surface soon in the present and the old cold case murder from back then is solved toward the end of the book in its current timeline.

• Eliminate repeats. I can’t tell you how many times I can say the same thing in writing over and over. The reader gets it the first time. I’m not sure about other authors, but I find myself telling it to them again in a different way. This has to end and I usually get rid of it during the revision process.

• No rambling over things you want to get in because of your beliefs. This is not about the author, but about giving the reader something interesting to read.

I’m interested in your experiences as authors and/or readers in words working without being too wordy.

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The Power of Writing Contests

by Linda Thorne

I recently entered a writing contest for a short story I'd written a long time ago and was reminded of how these contests can get your creative juices flowing. I polished off my unpublished short story, revising and revising until I felt I'd reached perfection. I submitted it early for a contest that doesn't end until close to the end of the year, but it's a big contest, huge, even for those who don't win but make the finals. I not only felt satisfied, but totally motivated. This started me on another contest for my unpublished novel in the works. My work in progress is still in revision stage, but I'm plowing through it now. Why? Because I have a contest, and this time the deadline is early summer.

I'd forgotten the power writing contests always had over me. When I first started writing I entered them regularly. That magic feeling. For years I’d entered the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition with my first book. They also have one for First Crime Novel. This contest is free for those mystery writers who have not yet published a novel and, if you win, it's traditional publication for your debut novel with an advance against future royalties of $10,000. The judges read your entire book. That’s an opportunity you don’t often find. That's gold! Sometimes I think the motivation to win this contest was what drove me to get the finished product I needed to find a publisher for my book. There is no second or third place winner in this competition only first place, or in the finals, or out of luck. I never won the contest, but for the last two consecutive years I entered, my book was a finalist. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has a novel in works (mystery or crime fiction), but has not yet published a novel.

Before I was published, I entered numerous writing contests regularly, not just for motivation, but for feedback from judges and an occasional critique thrown in as a bonus to those contests that charge fees for submissions. To me, the writing contests provided an invaluable learning tool.

Some other contests that I recommend to those seeking publication are: The Sandy Writing Contest, The PNWA Literary Contest, and The Colorado Gold Writing Contest.

Contests are motivational because there is a shorter-term possibility of getting something in return. You have a good reason to buff your submission. There’s the hope of a win of some sort. You’re given a deadline, so you meet it instead of dallying around. Then there's the precious worthwhile feedback many writing contests offer.

If you're trying to get published, seeking writing training, or want to get out of a writer's block mode, try submitting to a contest. If you do this, trust me, you'll really "get" what I've said here.  


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Writing Without an Outline

by Linda Thorne


 A couple of months ago, I moderated an author’s panel on this subject at the 14th Annual Killer Nashville International Writer's Conference. The topic is one that’s applicable to many writers. I found it interesting that all the authors on this panel, like me, write without an outline. I thought this either a huge coincidence since there were six of us in total or else it's evidence that most writers do not use outlines.

Authors are divided into two factions: those who outline and those who do not or more loosely, plotters and pantsers. I’ve heard the two camps discuss the topic in person and in blog debates, each side harboring strong opinions. Arguments can become intense with no one willing to budge from their position.

What I learned from the authors on this panel last August is although they claimed to be pantsers, none were. They may not outline, but they have other tools that guide them and keep them on target. I use copies of calendar months I print off from Outlook. I’ll scribble them down initially and when it gets too messy, I’ll type the list in Word in small font, print and cut and tape the typed wording onto each day in each month of my book's time frame. Sometimes there’s a transition and I’ll line through a week or so. I don’t need too many words to describe anything. Only a couple of words to trigger a scene or to state a new character is “on stage,” which means their first appearance. Others use different methods to look at the whole picture, or chunks of it.

Toward the end of this panel, I told the panelists and those who attended the session about my favorite article of all time on this topic. I found it by accident a few years ago, and I’ve kept it, reread it from time to time to keep myself focused. "Go Organic" by Steven James – Writer's Digest March/April 2013. I’ve copied the first part of this article below:

“I have a confession to make.
When I was in school and a teacher would assign us to write an outline for a story, I’d finish the story first, then go back and write the outline so I’d have something to turn in. Even as a teenager I thought outlining was counterintuitive to the writing process.”

6 Secrets of Writing Without an Outline
Above is the link for his republished version of Go Organic that he put on the blogpost, The Writer’s Dig, on October 15, 2013.

I honestly believe the old outline we were taught to use in high school and college is outdated. I’ve read that if you don’t use an outline, you’ll spend the same amount of time, if not more, by writing without it. I agree with that, but like Steven James, I can’t outline. I’ve tried and it doesn’t work for me. I know it takes me at least the same amount of time writing an outline would to find the controls to get the story in proper prospective, but I need to use what works for me.

What about you? Do you outline or do you simply start writing to see where it will lead you or, do you go organic with a plan that works for you?

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Writing to Word Count

by Linda Thorne

If you’re an author who has ever entered a writing contest, you’ve been subjected to word count requirements. Submissions to agents and publishers normally have maximum word counts too, except sometimes the limit may be a number of chapters in a book rather than actual words.

It’s amazing how the number of our words can significantly be reduced without changing a story. I’ve managed to cut a 3500-word short story down to 1000 while keeping the story intact.

My debut novel, Just Another Termination, started off with a 120,000-word first draft. It was awful. I eliminated a couple of non-essential characters and their roles, but still more fat to trim. I’d fallen victim to the mistaken idea that readers need to know everything. For example, I wrote over four pages that described the different stages my protagonist’s husband went through to move from LA to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to take a better job. He left my protagonist behind to sell their Los Angeles home, moved into a hotel near his new job, and then bought a home in Mississippi and moved into it. This all happened prior to my lead character joining him. Too much information.


I took these four pages of information dump and turned it into a two-sentence summary blurb. That and another 40 words sprinkled into other sections of the book was all that needed to be said on this subject. I had several other places where I could scratch 90% of the descriptions I’d written.

Here are some other things I did to reduce word count and tighten my book: 

• I dropped one of my subplots. I had to many in the first draft of my debut novel, Just Another Termination. In my second book yet to be published, A Promotion to Die For, I  think I’m right-on with the number of subplots.
• I got rid of a few characters. I had to eliminate a couple of characters in Just Another Termination and hated it. I’ve already eliminated two characters in my current work-in-progress, A Promotion to Die For.

I’ve heard to watch the words used on backstory in the beginning. Cut them down and trickle the information throughout the book. This is more difficult with my current WIP, A Promotion to Die For because my inciting incident happened thirty years earlier but is pressing into the current time frame of the book. Sometimes authors must ignore the naysayers when their book doesn’t fit into the “rules.” Critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Susan Isaacs wrote a book called, Lily White, where one chapter was in present time and the next in the past. To help differentiate, chapters in the present were written in regular font, where those in backstory were in italics. This went on with present/past chapters alternating until past and present met in time at the end of the book. Even though the author broke some (lots) of the “rules,” it seemed to work perfectly for this novel. I really enjoyed Lily White.

In A Promotion to Die For, I only have a few chapters that are written in back story, but I did need some full chapters to bring in the the inciting incident from three decades ago.

When my debut novel was finally published, it was closer to 80,000 words. I’m trying for the next one in the series to be about the same. Eighty thousand words is my general comfort level for mystery novels.

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Writing in First Person Point of View

by Linda Thorne

My comfort level lies in writing in first person. The only time I ever used third person was when I wrote a short story that ended with the protagonist's death. It didn't work well with my character using I and and me pronouns to describe her own death.

I enjoy reading books written in both first and third. My preference though leans heavier on stories in first person. In first person point of view readers depend upon the lead character, the sole observer, to provide them all the information.

I love working around the limitations this creates. Below are a couple of examples of possible disadvantages and how I work around them.     

• You cannot read the mind of other characters.

     Do you need to? My lead character makes judgments on what some characters might be thinking by knowing some of their history. She watches their actions and expressions too. Readers experience what she sees, hears, and feels. Isn’t that enough to guess or assume what the other characters might be thinking? I’d say not knowing their every thought adds a little mystery to the story. There may be times when readers do need to know the thoughts of another character. You don’t have to make your lead a mind reader to convey this information. Let your protagonist find this character’s diary or manifesto, or hear the character disclose his thoughts.


• The lead character cannot be in more than one place at the same time.

     Correct; however, if she needs the information and gets it another way, what difference does it make? I create point-of-view characters who bring the information to my protagonist. In my book, Just Another Termination, I produced a tattle-tale character who worked inside the police station. This gossip leaked information about happenings inside the department to a trusted friend. The trusted friend in turn shared this information with my protagonist.



There are many tricks you can use to get needed information to your readers. If you look online, you’ll find a vast amount of information, opinions, and suggestions on these two points of view. There are positives mentioned for both, but when stacked against each other, third person seems to triumph. The freedom to move the camera around in third person appears to be what tips the scales in its favor. I like finding alternatives to use when I can’t move that camera all over the place. My comfort level remains with first person.

There is also a second person point of view that is rarely used for good reason. Where first person is I and me, and third is he, she, it, and they; second is always a variation of you. I can’t imagine using this in any writing.

So, what about you? Do you prefer to write and/or read in first or third person POV? 

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Is Back Story Really That Bad?

by Linda Thorne

Ever since I started writing, I’ve been forewarned about the disastrous side effects of backstory. I know it’s essential to any story line, so I’ve taken the skeptics words to mean use it as little as possible, drop tidbits of the past only into the present, keep it low-key, and, when possible, keep it out.

I can practice the advice in short stories, but in writing my debut novel I had to break a few rules to keep the plot line intact. I remember treading cautiously into this minefield called backstory, keeping the naysayer warnings front and center in my mind.

In my work in progress, avoiding backstory has turned out to be impossible. Totally. The inciting incident occurs thirty years in the past. I tried adding it in pieces, adding it in present-day conversations, but it’s the inciting incident. Too me, it's essential for the reader to be there when it happens thirty years earlier.

So, I started thinking. What about all those books I’ve read and loved that had backstory? If avoiding backstory is the norm, maybe the norm is wrong or doesn’t apply in certain situations.

After All These Years, by Susan Isaacs is a New York Times bestselling novel I read some time ago. I liked the book so much, I went to the library and looked for another written by the same author. I checked out Isaacs’ Lilly White. Where her bestseller, After All These Years, had only the necessary amount of backstory, Lilly White was almost fifty percent backstory. Isaacs presents her story line using one chapter for Lilly White in the past and, in the next chapter, the present. She continues this pattern of shifting from a chapter in backstory back to a chapter in present time until close to the end when the past turns into the present and the climax chapters begin. I loved it and thought this tactic pure genius.

I've read other books with at least one chunk where the reader is taken back to a past time and place.

Two examples come to mind. There’s a fair-sized segment in The Blood in Snowflake Garden, by Alan Lewis that delves into a fictionalized historical event. The Blood in Snowflake Garden is Lewis’s debut novel and one that got him a TV movie option. Another example is Chester Campbell’s recent book, Hellbound. Campbell uses even less backstory then Lewis, but his fast-paced novel stops for a chapter to give the reader  
background on one of the characters. For some reason it didn’t seem to stop the flow of the story. I found the backstory in both these books interesting and necessary.

So, as I move through my work in progress, A Promotion to Die For, I write backstory because the story line will culminate with my character bumping up against circumstances surrounding an event that happened to her thirty years earlier. I don’t need to use half a book of backstory like Susan Isaacs did so well in Lily White, but I will have to dip into the past in several spots including the inciting incident scene that transpires in the very first chapter.

I think those who warn against using too much backstory are often correct, but I think there’s always exceptions to every rule, especially in writing. When I need to use backstory in A Promotion to Die For, I plan for it to appear deliberate because it is. I am doing everything I can to avoid anything that comes across as an info dump. I’m writing backstory that, not only knits its way into the present, but also claws its way there hoping that’s how the reader will see it.

I have it right in my head. I’m just hoping it works in my book.

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