Deleting words

I’m happy to say deleting words has never been a problem for me. On the other end of the spectrum, I often end up hitting the erase button too many times, sometimes more than I meant to. But I’ve never seen it as a waste of words, but rather the biggest help to becoming a better writer.

By deleting them suckers, I got to write more. At times it was about deleting a chapter or two, others about completely starting over. Sure, I could’ve mangled along and fine-combed the text for usable scraps, and don't get me wrong, sometimes I do. But mostly it’s actually faster to just write it from scratch. If I know the character well enough, the next time I come to that action scene or slog through the bog, I find myself writing the same thing almost word-by-word. If the scene was strong enough, the words will remain even if I’ve deleted them, in a way proving they belong on the page.

So, by hitting the dreaded delete key, I found new words flowed more easily, and in turn, helped me grow stronger as a writer.

Of course, you don't have to be like me and throw half your book into the unreachable corners of cyberspace but paste it into a secret folder if that feels better.

If you’re stuck, try deleting a paragraph, a chapter, or even a great big section of the book and see if that doesn’t help make it clearer which words actually deserve to be on the page. After all, there’s no such thing as wasting words when each new one helps to hone your craft.