Edit Mode

I've been in "edit mode" lately. Decided (after several changes of mind) to go ahead with Rose's prologue, and after several passes have cut the length almost in half, which it needed. So much easier to write long and cut.

Chapters 1-3 have also been under the knife, but less drastically so. Now I'm poised to cruise through Chapter 4 with one hand on the mouse and the other on the delete key. Plenty of good writing in there, but the wedding reception sequence is way too long and unfocused. Need to strip it down to its essence, while finding clever ways to feed in some more backstory details. There's a subplot supposedly lurking behind the scenes that I haven't managed to introduce yet. oops.

Once this is all done I'll have (I hope) a solid launch into the middle of the story. Whether or not I'll be able to squeeze discovery of the dead guy into the first 50 pages or not remains to be seen, but knocking off Rose in the prologue takes care of the "where's the corpse?" issue, right?

Next challenge is to get back into "write mode" in order to crank out more first/second draft and fill in all the plot holes throughout the middle.

Abby and I have agreed to do a novel exchange when she comes to visit in October (I'll read hers, she'll read mind). That gives me three months and three days to pull a complete, readable draft together. Eeep.