You’ve finished your first draft. Now what?
Start deleting.
Why begin by cutting? Why not check your grammar or spelling, search for unnecessary jargon or passive voice, or simplify the language?
Your first draft will contain things that you don’t need, especially if you follow Ken Davis’ advice: “Draft quick and dirty.” It may be single words here and there; unnecessary modifiers, or simple redundancies, like saying something is “red in color.”
You might have phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs that don’t add anything. (Keep an eye out for “throat-clearing” at the beginning of your draft.) Maybe you were doing a brain-dump when you wrote the first draft, and tossed in some information that’s not important or even germane. Novelist Elmore Leonard advises writers “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” If you forgot to leave it out, now is the time to cut it out.
Why spend time correcting or revising something that you’re going to end up cutting?
