The last few blogs I wrote discussed a radical cutting job I performed about six months ago. I’m not planning on repeating those blogs, but did want to share with new writers the importance of saving deleted work, at least until you know, that you know, that you know, you want need it ever again, and I probably still wouldn’t delete it.

I didn’t just cut paragraphs, sections, or scenes, I cut chapters. As a matter of fact, I cut the first two chapters of my novel thinking I was making improvements by getting rid of the fluff.

I’m not pushing fluff.  I’ve written numerous blogs on keeping your work clear and concise, but I discovered after cutting those chapters, that I had overeacted.

Thank goodness I had the forethought to save them in the previous draft.  All I had to do was go back, highlight, copy, and paste the two chapters into my current working copy.

They still need to be revised, but they are salvageable, and I’m not starting with a blank sheet of paper in front of me 🙂

Something to think about.

-Jan R