Editing: The Path of Willa
In the process of editing my paper, Willa Cather: Forsaken Love for Art's Sake, I have become quite adept at the Willa technique of editing! The original paper submitted is 5000 words (1/5 of a novel!) but I must present it in a 20-minute timeframe. When reading at a pace of approximately one minute per page in 14pt. font, the paper has to shrink to a preferable 17 pages to safely stay within the time limit. That means the 5000 words has to be cut to about 3600.
I've already cut about 1100 words worth of superfluous material, flowery descriptors and repetitive, supporting sentences.
I'm taking the path of Willa. Like a sculptor ships away marble to reveal the figure inside, Cather's reductionist approach is supported in her short story, A Chance Meeting, where she exalts the "qualites of good Latin prose: ECONOMY, ELEGANCE, AND EXACTNESS."
This is certainly the absolute best advice any editor could have. We must, at some point, trust the reader.
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