This is KAM Ireland and you're listening to the 49th episode of the Word Play Podcast. I finished my clean-up rewrite of my fantasy dreamers come.

Approximately three months and 45,000 deleted words later, I'm extremely pleased with my Slimdown version.

I've got a hulking document full of my

deletes, which I can't quite convince myself to wipe off my hard drive. Somehow cutting

beloved words from a manuscript is always so much easier if they're not gone forever.

Occasionally the deletes come in handy when I change my mind about getting rid of something

or when I want to recycle a scene for a different story.

But most of the time my deleted data files are never touched again after I finish with a book.

I still have the files from a man called Outlaw and behold the Dawn.

And unless my computer crashes, I'll probably always have them.

Chalk it up to another quirky writer habit.

Why one descriptor is more than two.

The latest post in the video series on my blog

demonstrates why less is usually more when it comes to descriptions, character

actions, and more. You can watch the video on my blog at wordplay-K-M-W-E-I-L-N-D spot dot com. New videos are posted every Wednesday.

Meanwhile, enjoy this week's podcast.

Improve yourself, improve your writing.

In a market as competitive as the writing world, we're all striving to be the best riders we can be.

But would you be surprised if I told you that the only way to be a better writer is to be a better person? You know all those admirable self-improvement goals that always end up on your resolution list?

Lose ten pounds, clean the garage, learn to play foosball.

At first glance, they may not seem to have anything in common with writing, but in fact they're related

in several ways, most notably in that they all require discipline, hard work, pragmatism, and a long-term vision.

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