The solution, sadly, is rarely this simple. Slice some adverbs, transplant some clauses, excise the slow parts.

And when a reader says a story is too slow or too long, the tendency-for me, at least-is to think: I just need to cut some flab. When a reader misses the point, it’s easy to write that reaction off as an impatient read. Instead of suggesting ways to make the ending more powerful, they wonder, aloud, What exactly are you trying to say? They tell you the story is too slow, too long. Rather than commenting on the story’s thematic impact, they seem to have overlooked the theme altogether. You’ve tidied it up and sent it off to a critique group, only to discover that everyone has summarily missed the point.

Here’s the scenario: you’ve squeezed every ounce of blood and grit and wit into producing a story packed with multidimensional characters, a gripping conflict, deeply extrapolated world-building, and heart-wrenching emotional resonance. …It has become so helpful to me that I’ve permanently integrated it into my revision process, and every story I’ve written since has seen improvement as a result. Derrick Boden shares the secret of “The Revision Machete” on the Odyssey Workhops blog. And it had me itching for more stories that plunge us deep into the swamp to reveal the creatures of darkness therein.(1) CHOP SHOP. The atmosphere of The Boatman’s Daughter is thick and fetid, compelling as it is unpleasant. Miranda finds herself unexpectedly in the middle of Cotton’s perverse plans, as manmade and supernatural threats loom over them all. Seven years later, with his spiritual kingdom in tatters, Cotton’s on his way out of this world and desperate to appease the ghost of his wife with a sacrifice. Hiram Crabtree went missing the night he and Miranda brought the witch Iskra to deliver Cotton’s unusual child. Since her father disappeared, Miranda has eked out a tenuous living ferrying drugs through the bayou for corrupted preacher Billy Cotton. Its Arkansas swamp setting clings to the narrative - clings, as a matter of fact, to Miranda Crabtree, the unfortunate young protagonist of this sordid Southern tale. A miasma hangs over every page of Andy Davidson’s latest novel, The Boatman’s Daughter.

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