When In Doubt, Leave It Out

Many years ago, when I sat down to help a colleague write performance reviews for people I had supervised, and that she then supervised, there were occasions when I thought something should be said about their performance, but I couldn't figure out the best way to say it, or I couldn't fit it in to what had already been said.  

After we'd struggled particularly hard with one person's review, exasperated, my colleague looked at me and said, "When in doubt, leave it out."

Fast forward to last week.

There I was revising my novel, and I found myself in the same situation:  I had three paragraphs I really liked.  I thought what they said was important to the story, and I really wanted them to work.  But I kept going over and over the same section, trying like hell to make these three paragraphs fit in.  And I still couldn't make them work. 

Then I remembered my former colleague's advice:  "When in doubt, leave it out."

If I have to struggle that hard to work something into my story, and I just can't make it happen, then if that isn't a sign to delete it and move on, I don't know what is.

Which is exactly what I did.  Gone.  The three paragraphs in question.

And you know what?  It turns out they weren't needed, after all.  After I deleted them, I read the section they came from and realized, by adjusting a few words, the reader would have no idea they had once been there and were now missing.

And, not only that, but also I realized what those three paragraphs said was stated elsewhere.  Maybe not in three easy paragraphs, but in different places, suggested, hinted at.  Removing them gave the reader the chance to put the pieces together himself.  I didn't have to spell out anything for him.  If he had been engaged in the story to that point, he would have everything he needed to get what the three deleted paragraphs told him.

In other words, I didn't have to summarize anything for the reader.  And I didn't have to hit him over the head with what I wanted him to get, either.

So my best advice for today is, "When in doubt, leave it out."

Or, "When you can't fit it in, get rid of it."  Chances are you don't need it, anyway.

Take it out, read it through, and see if I'm not right.