Cut structurally first, then at the sentence. Removing a subplot saves thousands of words; tightening sentences saves hundreds. Doing it in the other order means polishing prose you are about to delete.
Editorial standards agree on the classification: Editors Canada files cutting to meet length under structural editing, alongside reorganising material, not under sentence-level work.
The Structural Cuts
This is where the words actually are.
A subplot that does not touch the main plot. The largest single cut available, and the most painful. If removing it requires changing nothing else, it was not load-bearing.
Scenes that establish something already established. Two scenes proving a character is untrustworthy: keep the better one.
Scenes with no consequence. If nothing after the scene is different because of it, it is not doing work.
The beginning. First chapters are commonly warm-ups. Many novels start better at chapter two or three.
Editors Canada's structural standards cover this directly, requiring editors to "Identify and either recommend or make appropriate deletions (e.g., to remove repetitive, irrelevant or otherwise superfluous text or other elements)".
The reverse outline is the tool: summarise each scene in a line, read only the lines, and the redundant ones stand out in a way they never do inside the prose.
The Sentence-Level Cuts
Once the structure is right, the named patterns are worth knowing because they are mechanical. The University of Toronto publishes them as danger signals with prescribed reactions:
Doubling of words, where one word does the job: "mutual agreement (agreement)", "future prospects (prospects)", "reconsider again (reconsider)", "whether or not (whether)".
Intensifiers and qualifiers, to omit or replace with specifics: very, really, extremely, definitely, "a considerable amount of", "to a certain extent".
Formulaic phrases, replaceable with one word: "for the purpose of (to)", "due to the fact that (because)", "at this point in time (now)", "in view of the fact that (because)".
Catch-all terms that can often go: aspect, field, quality, case, kind, situation, fact, matter, factor, nature, thing, feature, type. Their example: "The fact of the war had the effect of causing many changes" becomes "The war caused many changes."
Padded verbs: "to have an expectation (to expect)", "to make an arrangement (to arrange)".
Unnecessary "to be" and "being": "The program is considered to be effective" becomes "The program is effective".
Relative structures that can be dropped: "The novel, which is entitled Ulysses, takes place..." becomes "The novel Ulysses takes place...".
Their self-demonstrating example cuts 31 words to 12: "There is a tendency among many writers who may be seen to display certain signs of lack of confidence that their sentences will be overloaded with relative clauses and other words which are generally useless in function" becomes "Many hesitant writers overload their sentences with relative clauses and other useless words."
The Two Best Mechanical Techniques
Hunt expletive constructions. Duke's guidance: "Expletive constructions (there is/are..., it is...) take up space but add little meaning to sentences." George Mason says the same: "watch for sentences and clauses beginning with it is, this is, and there are."
"There are five car alarms that are blaring in the parking lot" becomes "Five car alarms are blaring in the parking lot." Five words saved, and the sentence is more direct.
Hunt nominalisations, using prepositions as the detector. This is the most useful single heuristic here. Duke: "Actions expressed in nouns rather than verbs are called nominalizations", and crucially, "Strings of prepositional phrases are often red flags for nominalizations."
So search for chains of "of the", "in the", "for the". Where you find three in a row, an action is trapped in a noun. Their example: "The cause of our school's failure at teaching basic skills is not understanding the influence of cultural background on learning" becomes "Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because educators do not understand how cultural backgrounds influence learning."
Duke's full markup drill, worth doing once on a page to train the eye: underline the actions, box the verbs, circle the prepositions, then check whether the prepositions point at nominalisations and whether "to be" can become an action verb. Their extra signal: "check the distance between the subject and the verb".
Cutting Dialogue and Quotation
Dialogue tags: "said" is invisible and most tags are unnecessary when two people are speaking.
Quoted material: George Mason's rule transfers directly to fiction and non-fiction alike, to "Pare any quotations to the minimum effective length" since "sometimes you can smoothly paraphrase the idea just as clearly as the author can."
A Realistic Expectation
Line-level tightening typically recovers five to ten percent. If you need to cut 20,000 words from a 110,000 word novel, no amount of removing "very" will get you there. That is a structural cut, and knowing so early saves weeks.
Conversely, if you need 4,000 words off a 94,000 word draft, sentence work will do it without touching the story.
What Deckle Does
Word counts are per document, so the Outliner shows every scene's length. That is how you find the 4,000-word scene doing 1,200 words of work, which is where structural cuts live.
Snapshots before cutting mean a deleted subplot is recoverable. This matters more here than anywhere: cuts are irreversible by nature, and the confidence to make a big one comes from knowing you can get it back.
Search across the manuscript is how the mechanical passes run: search "there is", "there are", "it is", "very", "of the", and work through the hits.
The Outliner is the reverse outline, which is the structural diagnostic. Reading synopses in sequence is where a redundant scene becomes obvious.
For the order of work, see revision passes explained.
Common Mistakes
- Starting at the sentence. Editorial standards class cutting to length as structural work.
- Expecting line edits to save 20 percent. Five to ten is realistic.
- Cutting adverbs as a strategy. It is a rounding error against a redundant subplot.
- Deleting without a snapshot. Large cuts need to be reversible or you will not make them.
- Cutting the wrong beginning. Often the first chapter should go, not the third.
- Confusing shorter with tighter. A cut that removes information is not the same as one that removes words.
FAQ
Q: Where do the biggest cuts come from? A: Structure. Subplots, redundant scenes and false starts, not sentences.
Q: How much can line editing save? A: Realistically five to ten percent.
Q: What is the fastest mechanical fix? A: Expletive constructions, "there is" and "it is", and nominalisations flagged by strings of prepositional phrases.
Q: Should I cut adverbs? A: They are rarely where the words are. Fix the structure first.
Q: How do I know if a scene should go? A: If nothing after it is different because of it, it is not doing work.