Minimized. Finally… but not finished.

I’ve finally revised Descendant’s Diary down to 90K words. I’d like to lose maybe 5K more, if possible, but I’m satisfied with the word count remaining as is, if need be.

That being said, I’m not done. The first chapter (used to be prologue, now I’ve decided it’s a chapter) is in first POV while the rest is in third POV. I’ve decided that I don’t have a compelling enough reason to keep it as such. Seriously, I felt like I was back in my constitutional law course deciding whether a case can hold up to strict scrutiny. I’ve decided it can’t.

Thus I have to change it. Though I love it as it is, I know I have to let it go. I’m sure I can make it as good as it is now in third POV… at least, I hope so.

Absolute Writer Water Cooler

I am so glad that I came across this site while I was doing agent research. It’s amazing for that. You can read about firsthand knowledge of how other writers have interacted with certain agents. If they are good or if you should avoid them.But, more so than just that, I’m glad I found the site because I thought my manuscript was ready for the querying stage. After reading through posts and critiques I realized it isn’t. That saved me from the pain of querying when I know I’d just get rejections.I thought that minimizing my manuscript would be too difficult. I was sure I had it to the point where all the words mattered. Then I started to critique others and realized oh! I do that, too! I was still scared to start the revision process because editing down a manuscript that I have been revising for ages seemed impossible. If I didn’t catch it the first hundred times I revised it how would I catch it now?But then I started and 48 double-spaced pages in and I’ve cut nearly 10,000 words. I want to cut 70,000 more and I already have scenes in my head that I know I don’t need. I’m excited again about Descendant’s Diary. Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling confident about my writing or skills. Now I am again. Crazy how that works.

Writing a novel is like a roller coaster ride. One minute you think it’s great and having fun the next you don’t. I saw this image at one point somewhere at AW:

And it was exactly what I needed.

Thank you AW