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One Chapter At A Time

I'm taking fellow blogger Annie Wicking's advice, and going through UNIQUE chapter by chapter. The more I think about it, the more I want to clean up the story. I want to make sure the plot is not stale, and the characters are not just fodder. My goal tonight is to shave ten thousand words, and bring the count down to about 130,000.

Originally, I was shooting for 180,000 words. Wow was I way off. That would have just been too drawn out.

So now the outline begins, where I will highlight the main issues in each chapter, and recycle the unnecessary paragraphs. One thing I have to mention is that reading - especially in your genre - is so very important. There have been quite a few revelations with certain books I have been reading lately, and I am beginning (after six years) to see what a good story is all about.

So thanks for the advice, Annie. I have some direction now while I wait for the mail.

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  1. Jane SmithNovember 21, 2008 at 4:44 PM

    130,000 still sounds far too long to me--if I were you, I'd cut it still further to under 100,000.

    It might be that your genre needs those extra words but most editors are reluctant to consider first novels of anything like this length.

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