Novel Kicks Writing Room: Copperfield Editing

Hello. Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room. 

Today, we are going to be focusing on editing.

Below is the opening passage from David Coppefield by Charles Dickens.

An aunt of my father’s, and consequently a great-aunt of mine, of whom I shall have more to relate by-and-by, was the principal magnate of our family. Miss Trotwood, or Miss Betsey, as my poor mother always called her, when she sufficiently overcame her dread of this formidable personage to mention her at all (which was seldom), had been married to a husband younger than herself, who was very handsome, except in the sense of the homely adage, “handsome is, that handsome does” — for he was strongly suspected of having beaten Miss Betsey, and even of having once, on a disputed question of supplies, made some hasty but determined arrangements to throw her out of a two pair of stairs’ window.

These evidences of an incompatibility of temper induced Miss Betsey to pay him off, and effect a separation by mutual consent. He went to India with his capital, and there, according to a wild legend in our family, he was once seen riding on an elephant, in company with a Baboon; but I think it must have been a Baboo — or a Begum. Anyhow, from India tidings of his death reached home, within ten years. How they affected my aunt, nobody knew; for immediately after the separation she took her maiden name again, bought a cottage in a hamlet on the sea-coast a long way off, established herself there as a single woman with one servant, and was understood to live secluded, ever afterwards, in an inflexible retirement.

(Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. 1850. Bradbury & Evans. London.) 

First, read it through a couple of times to get familar with it.

Then, re-read, each time doing a task from the list below. You can do as many as you like.

• Tighten Prose – Remove redundancy
• Show, Don’t Tell – Strengthen emotional impact
• Strengthen Weak Verbs – Replace passive language
• Vary Sentence Length – Improve rhythm and pacing
• Eliminate Clichés – Find fresh language
• Tighten Dialogue – Cut unnecessary speech
• Cut Backstory Dumps – Weave context naturally

How did you find it?

As usual, I hope you had fun.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.