Proud of Myself

And I should be!

Yes, I just finished trimming (hacking) 10 percent of my manuscript away. It is DONE. I even went through afterward and cut as many "he/she nodded" and "just" as I could. (I found myself using those a lot--guess we all have weaknesses.)

I cut my 112,600 word manuscript down to 100,400 words. And it shrank from 401 pages to 364.

What an experience! I told my Hubs that it felt like smoothing out a sculpture, and the story is better without my habit of stating the obvious and my apparent need to repeat myself three or four times.

Now I just need my agent to agree that it's finally ready, and someone really ought to check it for technical errors. I would do it myself, but I don't speak 'comma' or 'semi-colon', and I don't trust the 'Grammar Check' program.

Of course, I hesitate to say it's 'done'. I keep thinking it is, and then it isn't, but I'm hopeful. I'd really like to get started on book 2, but I'll wait and see what happens with Wielder first, and in the meantime, I'm going to celebrate by sleeping every chance I get.

I'll let you know when I hear from Stan 'The Amazing Agent'!

G'night!