- search for adverbs. Remember defiantly thinking "adverbs are GREAT, everyone who says to cut them is WRONG"? okay, now cut them
- somebody looks, glances, blinks, breathes: no they don't
- somebody is wearing clothes: no they aren't
- go through the whole draft again: maybe you've accidentally pasted one chapter in five or six times, and can simply delete the extras
- change the setting! something that was set in Norwood Junction could be more efficiently set on Mars
- the first time you mention your protagonist, add this line: "She nodded, silent and taciturn as was her way". As you're adding words this might seem like you're making the novel even longer, but you can then replace every sentence your protagonist says in the rest of the book with a grunt. You've got to spend money to make money
- are there any places where you can you combine characters? For example, ꜳrdvark, churchgœr, e℔ow
- show, don't tell: a page of description might add two hundred words to your count, but a screenshot of a page of description will add zero
Emulate the pros: Toss the whole fucking thing in the garbage, and then write down the parts that you remember! Everything else wasn't important.
This technique was co-invented by John Steinbeck and his dog Toby, after the latter ate the only existing draft of Of Mice and Men. When published, it was three hundred pages shorter than The Grapes of Wrath.
