Simplicity

In the last few days I've been re-writing some of my old work using the techniques I learnt in Mexico. One of the tools I love using is what I call "Bonsai-ing", cutting out all the stuff in a story that is either duplicate information, or just fluff. It's amazing how much crap you can cut out, mostly due to the fact that when we write our first draft we aren't supposed to follow any editing rules, we are allowed to poor our guts out onto the paper and not hold back...the editing comes afterwards. I like to save my first drafts because it can be full of passion that comes with spilling your guts out, that sometimes gets edited out of your final draft. Through Bonsai-ing, I've actually taken 3 pages of writing and trimmed them down to 1!