So close!

Belated Happy Thanksgiving to my readers!  I hope that your holiday was as wonderful as mine was.  We were surrounded by family and shared a wonderful meal prepared by my Mom (with help from my sister and me).  I had a lot to be thankful for this year and I couldn’t have asked for a better 1^st Thanksgiving for my son.

Okay, so I conquered my last dilemma and went with scene C.  Why?  Because it just made sense logistically.  I’ve made the character in question a bigger part of the story, but not by as much as previously thought.  And the best part is it doesn’t weigh the story down, and I’ve opened up opportunities for this character’s expansion in the sequels.  So I’m pretty pleased with myself. 

How’d I do it?  I stopped thinking so much and went to bed.  I barely sleep usually; with a 7 month old, a house, a husband, holidays, friends and family, on top of this manuscript and all the other fun curve balls life throws at you, my brain needed a break.  Once I shut it off, it processed and created the solution on its own.  If only everything in life were that easy.   

Now I’ve come to another wall in my final read through.  I have 8 pages worth of scene and summary that I love, but could be cut or condensed.  I have to figure out which to choose, and if I go with the latter, I have to decide what to cut.  I’m an indecisive person when it comes to creative decisions-it took me days to come to a compromise on the last issue and that only happened after some sleep.  I don’t think this time its going to be so easy.

As for the diet, I’ve trimmed another 2,000 words.  I’d be thrilled if I could cut another 13,000, but realistically I think I’ll be able to cut another 5,000.  And I’ll be happy with that.  In the end it’s not about how many words it is, but if those words convey the story I want to tell and keep the reader turning the pages.  I think I’m accomplishing that.

I’m off now to figure out how to climb this newest wall.  ;-)