Stephen King and the Wadsworth Constant

In the spring of my senior year at Lisbon High—1966, this would have been—I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: "Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck."

               - Stephen King, On Writing

For EVERY youtube video, I always open the video and then immediately punch the slider bar to about 30 percent. For example, in this video, it should have just started at :40. Everything before :40 was a waste. This holds true for nearly every video in the universe.
                                                 - Reddit user Wadsworth

The expression goes 'less is more'. It's a cliche, and it's as often applied to cooking as it is to interior decorating as it is to drawing as it is to writing. But I think this might just be one of those good cliches, you know? One of those ones that became a cliche because it was so relentlessly true and applicable. Kind of like 'always let the Wookie win'.

Winner! ... again.

I was very intrigued a while ago when I was on the huge internet-dredging, high-tech collating service known as reddit and stumbled across reference to a thing called the Wadsworth Constant. You can find out all about it at that link, but it is basically the principle that any YouTube video can be skipped by about 30% and lose none of its intended purpose. And not just because everyone insists on shoving boring, loud and annoying intro graphics at the beginning of their videos.

Fascinating, isn't it, that it coincides so closely to all the advice about skipping the early parts of your novel? Stephen King advocates 10%, Ernest Hemingway said something along the lines of turning your first fifty pages into five. 'In late, out early' is another way I've heard it put.

I read a little while ago that it's more common than not for a first-time author to have their first chapter cut entirely from their manuscript. That's what made the Wadsworth Constant seem so universal to me. YouTubers are generally not professionals. They've found success in an amatuer medium, where nobody was around to tell them that they must cut the first thirty percent of their video because oh my gosh it is just SO BORING.

I've yet to be told by any industry professionals that I need to lose my first chapter, but if that day comes I will listen without question. I know the rule is true. I know it makes sense. It must, because it has sprung into existence in two entirely different realms, utterly independent of each other. That's called universality, and it applies in force to beginnings.

This whole movie should have been cut from the trilogy!

So, my advice for the day is this: if you're struggling with pace, or aren't getting any traction with your MS as it stands, snip the first chapter. Or two. Pepper the important stuff through the later ones, and see what happens.

And if it doesn't work out, blame Stephen King and Wadsworth. They're the ones you want, not me.