I LOVE writing. I LOVE rewriting (If you like to write, you better love rewriting). But sometimes it is REALLY hard to make cuts. I try to follow the mantra of "if something doesn't move the plot, move or build the character, than it doesn't belong in a narrative work." If it accomplishes one or both of these things AND it's funny, all the better... but if it's JUST funny, it's got to go. And a better mantra: "If it CAN be cut, it probably should be"
Those are the cuts that can be hard to make.
Case in point: Here's a screen grab of a page from the chapter book I'm working on.
The circled bit of dialogue (I realize it is a bit out of context without the preceding pages' events) is entirely inspired by a real conversation between my sublimely dry-witted college roommate and his (umm... eccentric) mother.
But, does it REALLY move the story? COULD it be cut? That's what I'm grappling with today.
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