I been working on this story for three years or more now. I think I am almost done with the first complete draft, but before I could finish it, I had to go back and edit some details to keep things consistent. After reading the chapters that seemed to tell the most coherent story, I decided that each chapter should be between 4000 and 5000 words. So as I have got back to edit details, I am also cutting, adding, rewriting to fit the word length.
This week I encountered a long chapter and I had to cut lots of words. I worked on it all weekend and finally got it down to 5200 words. I thought 200 words isn't many over my limit. The limit is arbitrary anyway, and thought I would move one.
But those 200 words nagged me. They kept telling me that I was missing something unimportant that needed to go. The argued that I hadn't gotten the characters right, and that I was getting too sentimental. So I went back and cut some more, and then again, and again. After all that I was down to 4970 words, and I didn't feel like there were any gaps in the story. If anything, it was more consistent with the larger story and solid as a chapter.
At least, that is how I felt after reading it the last time. Who knows how it will stand the next edit?
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