If you’re writing short stories for contests, magazines or anthologies, you’ll probably find yourself aiming for a word count. Sometimes, the word count is too tight for the story, but other times it’s a case of conciseness. 

In these instances, you’ll probably find yourself trawling back and forth, looking for sneaky words to snip out. 

We’ve done this a few times, so we thought we’d write down our tips and tricks for cutting words from your story.

Do it—even if you’re under the word count

On rare occasions (for us) we’ve written the first draft and it’s been under the word count. The temptation here is to apply the usual polish then get it straight out the door. But we’ve learnt that even the shortest stories can benefit from a cut and blow dry. 

When you cut words you’re forced to re-look at each part of your story and assess its importance. In doing so, you weed out the ‘padding’—the stuff that doesn’t add anything for the reader. It also frees up space to expand where previously you might have held back.

Beware of intensifiers and adverbs

Brrr, it’s very cold in here. Or is it freezing? Intensifiers are words like very, really, so and quite. They modify an existing adjective to intensify its meaning.

Sometimes they’re exactly what you need, especially in dialogue. But often they’re sitting in place of another word that better conveys your meaning.

Here’s a few examples:

It’s very cold in here = It’s freezing in here 

That’s really bad = That’s terrible

It’s very important = It’s crucial

I’m so tired = I’m exhausted

Similarly, adverbs modify verbs, and can also be condensed into single words: 

She shouted loudly = She yelled

He ran quickly = He sprinted

They talked quietly = They whispered

Finding and swapping out intensifiers and adverbs can help to cut words in your story (and make your imagery more evocative).

Look out for repeated meaning

You might notice points in your story where it feels a bit slow. As if your brain is saying ‘Come on, get on with it!’. It could be that you’ve written the same thing twice in different ways. For example:

Jane ran down the stairs, desperate to tell Timmy what she’d discovered. 

“Timmy!” she shouted, bursting into the living room. “You’ll never guess what I’ve discovered.”

Ok, this is an obvious example, but hopefully it helps to explain. Do we need ‘...desperate to tell Timmy what she’d discovered’? Or is the meaning already conveyed in the dialogue?

Here’s the same example, without the repeated meaning.

Jane ran down the stairs. 

“Timmy!” she shouted, bursting into the living room. “You’ll never guess what I’ve discovered.”

By finding and removing phrases with repeated meaning, you’ll cut words, and tighten your prose.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat (or give it a nice cuddle)

Read through paragraphs in isolation and see if there’s another, shorter, way of writing them.

Can you swap that long list of adjectives with a simile? Or exchange an explanatory section for short, snappy dialogue that reveals the same information?

By experimenting with different formats you’ll likely find a shorter and more original way of saying what you mean.

Avoid the past perfect tense (where possible!)

You’ll probably find yourself slipping into the past perfect tense when writing a flashback or memory: 

He had thought she would be happy. He had wrapped her gift so nicely.

It works well for backstory, but it comes with a health warning. Writing in the past perfect tense nearly always results in more words because of the dreaded ‘hads’. She had this, he had that… It’s also more cumbersome to read.

Assessing whether there’s an alternative to your past perfect tense scenes and cutting them down can help save words and make your writing easier to read.

Speak now or forever have more words

Nothing is better for finding sneaky extra words than reading aloud. Or, preferably, having somebody else read aloud whilst you follow along in the document.

We do this a lot when we’re cutting words together, and it’s amazing how often the person reading aloud will skip over words that don’t need to be there.

Sometimes, we won’t even realise, and it’ll be up to the other person to say ‘hey, you know you didn’t read that word, shall we just cut it?’.

Know when to stop

There’s a million rules out there of things you should and shouldn’t do in writing, but the biggest lesson we’ve learnt is not to take them too literally.

Going away now and stripping out every last intensifier and adverb from your story; deleting all the past perfect tense scenes; and rewriting everything else, risks losing your voice. 

You could remove every last unnecessary word in your story (which is tempting when you want to submit to a new market), but you need to know when to stop. 

You need to have a feel for the balance between making your story concise and snappy, and making it yours. If you find yourself cutting words mercilessly, take a step away, and return later.

Nothing is worth more than a break, and nothing works greater magic than a fresh pair of eyes.