Killing My Darlings

I’ve spent most of the day editing. About ten hours. I know this draft of Witches is WAY too long, and I know I rambled on a bit, seeing as how it was the first thing I ever really tried to write (and I lost my way several times), but it still sucks when I have to take out scenes that I love. I hate doing that, even when I know the entire scene (chapter, really) was pointless in terms of the story, except to illustrate the sheer volatile nature of Kahleena’s relationship with Julien. But still. Hard to cut it. Of course, I stuck it in the file I keep for everything I’ve cut from this story. Hey, if it ever gets published, I can do something with the deleted scenes, right?

Of course, I wrote much of Witches without an outline. Now that I’ve learned the folly of that (for me personally, anyway), I’m hoping to avoid any more purely indulgent scenes. And not have to cut half the MS to get it to the outer reaches of publishing length. Here’s hoping the editing goes well tomorrow, though I won’t spend nearly so long at it.

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