No Matter How Pretty Something Sounds

You know what’s frustrating? When you see a quote somewhere that leaves such an ineradicable mark on your mind that it changes the way you think, and then suddenly, you can’t recall who said it. I just spent half my morning looking for a specific quote to write about and now, alas, it has disappeared into the vast internet universe.

I want to say Mitch Albom said it. Maybe it was Stephen King. I don’t know. Shit.
 

Okay, so I’m going to do my best to get over the fact that I’ve lost the quote and try to summarize because it truly made the biggest difference when it came time to edit my first draft. It went something like this: “Don’t become too attached to specific sentences, those are usually the sentences that need cutting out.” I’m sure I just butchered that quote and I feel terrible for doing so; please forgive me.

No matter, it’s still wonderful advice. Sometimes, no matter how pretty something sounds, it simply doesn’t belong in your work. I went through this with a paragraph that I wrote one day merely because I thought it was cute. I guess I also thought it would help clarify some things in my piece. 

“Not all memories are vivid. Some dance impishly about our minds like dust motes set against beams of sunlight; sparkling and seemingly tangible one moment while impossible to grasp the next. Others are more lush and so vivid that one may wonder what parts their mind created on its own. These are the memories that shape our lives, their courses and, arguably most importantly, the relationships within them.”

It is, like I said before, a cute bit of writing, but it really clashed with the voice of the narrator. It took many attempts to find what my “voice” would be for my current project and once I found it, sticking to it was key. Since my book is not first person and throughout the plot-driven story the narrator does little more than describe the characters own experiences, it felt ill-fitting to include this paragraph.

Occasionally my friend the editor, a.k.a. Kathryn VanderWoude, gives me advice to do away with certain sentences I’ve grown to love. It can be difficult to swallow, but I’m not an editor and I’m not always right. It would be nothing short of arrogant for me to ignore her opinions. And usually (usually!) she’s right. 

I’ve learned to never become too attached to certain sentences, especially those that are not necessary to the story. Sometimes the prettiest phrases simply get in the way. If they are good pieces, I can keep them written down somewhere and use them for something else someday, but if they are merely extraneous, they are very likely just getting in the way.

I’ve grown to get a sick joy out of crossing out sentences. It’s like trimming the fat. More often than not, deleting sentences that are pretty but useless turns a good paragraph into a great one. I’m no expert. Try it for yourself!

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