learning to let go

If you're anything like me, it can be hard to press the "delete" key. Sometimes, you know that a phrase or scene does not fit in your book, but you love the way it was written so much you can't bring yourself to get rid of it.

Here's my advice: the purpose of each and every word in your book is to further your story. If that word or phrase is not doing its job, you need to fire it! Get it out of there, because it's bringing the whole book down!

Now, what if it's not underperforming so much that you need to just flat out get rid of it? In that case, bench it. Copy and paste it into a separate document, and then delete it from your WIP. Later, you can see if it fits back in, but by that point you likely will have realized you don't actually need it anymore :)

The gist of it? Don't let yourself get attracted to phrases or scenes that aren't moving your story along. Cut them out like the poison they are, and replace them with new, beautiful words you'll fall in love with!

Have you ever had to delete a phrase or scene you'd grown attached to?

♥tg