Abra Staffin-WiebeIsolating while sick with covid, so I might as well do some hard cuts so I can finally send this story out. 10 pages down: 1,113 words cut. 33 pages to go: 1,175 words (minimum) to cut. Seems doable. Time to help this chonky boi move a little faster.
I titled this manuscript draft "[Name] - Shorter" and now every time I read it, I hear it in my head in a creepy voice like Steven King's "Thinner."
Silly subconscious, it's SF about our contemporary dystopia, not horror!
Aaaagggghhhh I'm almost done with the hard cut and I'm still not going to get under the necessary wordcount. ::sob::
I cut from 46 pages to 38. That was the hard cut on an already polished draft. The story is light years better! But--it's still 10,527 words long. That's 527 words too many. Now...now it's time for the MEAN cut.
VICTORY!!! I took an already polished "final" draft and cut it from 46 pages to 36 pages (12,800 words to 9,800 words). Lost a scenic bike ride, the good part of a bad date, some infosec stuff (it was overstuffed with infosec, there's still plenty left), and a few music bits. Hopefully fixed a serious pacing problem. We'll see.
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