Tightening It Up

In honor of today's topic, this will be a short post.
Jennifer J. Bennett's post yesterday and Rachelle Gardner's post from two days before were both sending the same message...a valuable one. It is all about tightening up your writing and taking out unnecessary words that don't add to the story. I'm a huge word over-user and I need to learn the valuable skill of tightening. Printing words on a page costs Publishers money and before they publish a book it's probable that they are making sure there aren't 22 extra pages.

22 extra pages (x) a few thousand copies of a book(=) lost money (=) not good, in this economy

The important question for each scene, sentence, and adjective is: does it add to my story? If not, it can go. I have some (but need some more) friends who will be honest with me. It may be tough to hear at times but at least I'll grow.

By they by...next week I am moving to a new format so you'll have to be honest with me and tell me if you like it...more on that later.