Minus 46 pp. through Ch. 5

I put in an extra a.m. session today (spring break dividend). Made the changes on Ch. 5, which reduced it by 9 pages, versus 7 estimated. So I'm up to minus 46 and slightly ahead of my overall estimate.

It hurts though. I block out the text and can't believe what I'm seeing--I'm really getting rid of that episode, that character? Click, and it's gone. (Well, it's saved for posterity in other files of course.) One of the episodes I cut this afternoon was almost the very first thing I wrote two years ago when I was first noodling with this project. It still goes with where the story has evolved, but it's not essential. It slows down the pace, and when you stand at 463 pages, pace takes priority over color.

It was a lot of work today. If tomorrow is no harder and I finish two chapters--6 and 7--I'll really be done with Part 1 since Ch. 8 was one of those odd chapters I took care of before. I can skip forward several chapters after that.