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The thoughts and work of Sam Witt

Editing by the Numbers: Hot Points and Dead Space

Spying over a young woman's shoulder as she reads.Wouldn’t it be awesome if you knew exactly which chapters your readers were into and which ones they were rushing through? How cool would it be if you could sit on a reader’s shoulder as she went through your book and note when her pulse quickened as the action propelled her from one chapter to the next? Don’t you wish you knew which parts of your book your readers thought were boring or difficult to understand?

For most writers, this kind of information just isn’t available. Jukepop authors, on the other hand, have an edge: Author Analytics.

The Golden Ratio

A nautilus shell cross-section.In our previous installment, we entered all of our data into a handy spreadsheet. This included some calculations that are critical to understanding how readers interact with your work. The three numbers we’re going to focus on in this installment are:

  1. Word Count Ratio. This tells you how close each chapter’s word count is to the average of all chapters in your serial.
  2. Read Time Ratio. This tells you how the average reading time for this chapter compares to the average reading time for all chapters in your serial.
  3. RTR to WCR Ratio. This is the golden ratio. It tells you, overall, how long readers spent poring over each chapter as that relates to all other chapters in your serial, adjusted for word count.

From my perspective, there is no single number in your handy spreadsheet that will tell you as much about the effectiveness of your writing and plotting than the RTR to WCR Ratio. Let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Hitting the Sweet Spot

The cover of a jujube dolls candy box.I don’t know about you, but I spend my time writing in the hope that someone will actually, you know, read this stuff. The higher a chapter’s RTR to WCR Ratio (from now on, I’m just typing R:W because my fingers are old and sore), the more time your readers spent with that chapter on a word-for-word basis. On the other hand, chapters with low R:W numbers were breezed through (maybe good, maybe bad) or possibly just skimmed (almost always bad).

The sweet spot for R:W in your chapters is the rough range between .6 and 1.5. In this range, readers are actively picking up the words you’re putting down, and they are moving from chapter to chapter at a nice, brisk pace. If the bulk of your chapters fall into this zone, your writing has an even pace and tone that keeps your readers in the groove of your story. That’s a very good thing, as you want your story to flow smoothly. Except when you don’t. More on that later.

Below the Curve

An epic/awesome chartIf you’ve got a lot of chapters that fall below this sweet spot, then you’ve some trouble spots to work on. In Half-Made Girls, I had a few chapters that clearly didn’t connect with readers. Let’s take a look and see where I went wrong.

Chapter 12, Blackeye, was the first chapter that fell below the sweet spot with a R:W of .51. This was a bit of a surprise to me since it falls smack dab in the middle of Joe’s escape from the Pryor House, which I thought was pretty gripping stuff. When I went back and read through that part of the serial, the problem jumped right out at me. Before and after this chapter, Joe is fighting for his life and exploring the mysteries of the Pryor House. But in Blackeye, he stops to interrogate one of the bad guys. The problem with this chapter is the way it breaks up the flow of the escape sequence. It’s a hiccup in what is otherwise a pretty straightforward flight from danger. Removing this chapter restored the flow of the story, creating a streamlined, harrowing sequence that my editors and beta readers tell me is much, much more engaging.

Another trouble point cropped up in Chapter 20, Domestic Bliss. This is the first chapter where we get a good look at Joe’s home life, and it appeared my readers were not on board. When I put on my editor’s hat and dug in, I saw that I’d tried to cram two chapters into one. In the first half of Chapter 20, Joe and Stevie have a little tiff and we get some insight into the complicated hell that is their relationship. But then I threw the whole shebang into a bootlegger drift and took off with Elsa’s story for the last half of the chapter. Talking to my betas about this chapter, they were reading along just fine until they hit the swerve and lost the thread of the chapter. I’ve since split the chapter up to keep character motivations and story lines nice and clear, making for a much stronger flow and better reading experience.

The biggest change I’ve made as a result of this analysis involves the ill-fated Woodcock sisters, Nancy and Lizzie. Their piece of the big plot never connected with the readers, and the R:W for their pivotal chapter was low. After some more analysis, I’ve yanked the sisters from all but one scene. This helped me trim down the overall word length of Half-Made Girls and tightened up the third quarter of the book considerably.

So far, I’ve only talked about the bad parts of low R:W, but there is one case where you want that number low. In every book, you’ll have scenes or chapters that you want to just fly by. Chase scenes, breezy banter, or climactic fights should all, in my opinion, fly by for the reader. I want my readers to be propelled through those chapters by the story, flipping pages faster and faster in their eagerness to find out what the hell is going to happen.

Two chapters in Half-Made Girls, Chapter 69 – An Old Man’s Fear and Chapter 79 – Fistful of Blood, are prime examples of this. In the first, Zeke is fighting for his life against one of the eponymous girls. It’s a brutal fight, but based on its R:W, readers tear right through it. Fistful of Blood is a similar chapter, and I’m happy to see the numbers bearing up to my expectations there as well.

Heavy Hitters

Woman getting punchedEvery book has a structure, and that structure is supported by critical tent pole scenes. Briefly, these are the hook (though this is special, as you’ll see), the first plot point, the midpoint, the second plot point, and the climax. My books also have a bonus last scene, the Series Hook, that I hope whets the reader’s appetite to read the next Pitchfork County book. You need these important scenes to really hit home for the reader. You want your audience to read them, read them again, then back up the truck and read it all one more time just to get every greasy nuance of your masterful words rubbed into the grooves of their headfat.

If you’re a pantser, you’re probably about to beat me in the face with your shoe. You may not care about these structural elements and think they’re all just a bunch of hooey. That’s cool – but hang with me, because a lot of this applies to you, as well.

Look at those chapters with a R:W of ~2 or higher. These are your story’s heavy hitters, the scenes that made your readers really sit up and take notice of what you were doing. Plotters, your tentpole scenes damn well better fall into this category. If the big moments of your story can’t grab the reader and hang onto their attention, there’s a problem. Take a look at those chapters, talk to your betas, and figure out what went wrong. Because until you fix those little buggers, your story is doomed.

Pantsers, look at your chapters with high R:W numbers. I’ll bet you a dozen Krispy Kremes that these are going to be your tentpole scenes. Examine them, and you’ll find the pivotal moments that your readers fell in love with. Sharpen them, hone them into brain darts that will sink deep into your readers’ minds, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Let’s take a peek at how I did with Half-Made Girls.

  1. Hook: 1.01
  2. First Plot Point: 2.22
  3. Midpoint: 1.9
  4. Second Plot Point: 2.29
  5. Climax: 2.8
  6. Series Hook: 7.43

Right out of the gate, my hook looks a little ho-hum. A mere 1.01 R:W? I won’t deny it, the hook could be sharper, but that 1.01 R:W isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I want the hook to grab the reader and get them yanked into the book. That doesn’t have to take a lot of time, and if the hook goes down smoothly, I’ll take it as a win. I am reworking this chapter, a little, but I’m not making any drastic changes because it seems to get folks into the story quickly and efficiently. That’s all a hook’s supposed to do, so I’m satisfied.

The next three tent poles are solid. Slightly above or ever so slightly below 2.0. Readers are spending twice as long with these chapters, word-for-word, than the average chapter. I’m cool with that. There are some things I’m doing to get the midpoint to carry a little more of the story’s weight, but overall I’m very pleased with what I’ve got here.

Half-Made Girl’s climax was a hit with readers. It’s rocking a very nice 2.8 R:W, which tells me folks are taking their time to absorb this moment in the story. Go me!

The next few chapters following the climax all sport above average R:W, ranging from 1.74 to 2.46. My readers enjoyed watching me wrap up the loose ends and set the stage for the next Pitchfork County book. It makes me so happy to see those numbers, because it means that the story was solid and kept folks reading (and re-reading) even at the tail-end.

The series hook had the highest R:W of the whole book. It’s a short chapter, but that 7.43 R:W means it grabbed readers by the throat and shook them until all their pocket change fell out.

Hopefully, that means they’ll be eagerly awaiting the next book, Black-Blood Boys. See what I did there?

What’s Next?

In this article, I’ve shown you how to use your data to pinpoint some very specific types of problems with your story. The next installment zooms out for a bird’s eye view of your narrative landscape. If you have any questions or comments on this series, or topics you’d like to see covered in more detail, please feel free to leave a comment below.

I’m also looking for a few brave souls who are willing to share their data with me, to bring a broader scope to this series. If you’re interested, send me a DM on twitter @samrwitt.

About Sam

I am the author of the popular Pitchfork County series of horror novels. I also write a newsletter with great reading suggestions and free fiction.

  • Hey, I’m interested in sharing my data, though it’s quite a bad one, seeing how my readership fell to zero after chapter 15. But I’m still willing to share.

  • Sam

    Hi Aden – I’ll drop you an email and see what we can see about those numbers. Thanks!

  • Thanks for taking the time to do this. Very interesting