WIP is in fact progressing . . .

You know, I thought I was done cutting? But I guess not. What I think is going to happen is, I’m going to add another short chapter at the end, or break the current last chapter in two, or something. Not sure!

To get back in the mood and remind myself about how the story works, I started at the beginning for a straight read-through. I find that really helpful any time I’ve taken a break from a manuscript (which I had to do because Devi at Orbit requested a little bit of work on House Of Shadows), or any time I kind of get stuck and need to get un-stuck.

This time, a couple of nice side-effects: first, I cut another 1400 words without really trying (yay!), getting the length down to 121,500 words. I wouldn’t mind losing a little more length along the way because, as I said, I expect to add a little at the end.

And second, I found out I really kind of like the story. Whew! It was hard to judge, before. I guess I really did need to step back from it for a week or two.

So I’m 2/3 done with the read-through. I’ll finish that tonight. I bet I can have the ending re-done by Wednesday, say. Do some neatening up and have the manuscript ready to go by Friday, or Monday at the latest.

Next step: sending it to a couple of readers, especially my brother.

You know what would be nice to have first, though? A decent title. I just don’t have a knack that way. I’m thinking maybe I’ll try Rachelle Gardner’s advice about how to create a good title. Kind of a brute-force approach, but waiting for inspiration to strike doesn’t seem to work very well for me.

Then a break! Got a lot of books I’d like to read. I’m thinking I’ll start with Eon and Eona. I do love a good story set in an exotic setting! I’m confident enough that I’ll like these that I bought the second book without reading the first — so I hope I’m right! (Every now and then that confidence backfires — but usually if Thea at The Book Smugglers loves a book, so will I, so I should be pretty safe.)

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