It is ON. Oh my yes. Well, not too impressively quite yet given that I’ve been smacked upside the head with a cold all weekend, but in the state of mind I’ve been in, it’s oddly easier to do a word count reduction pass than it is to write actual new content.

Which means of course that I’ve officially decided to go ahead and do a word count reduction draft while I’m waiting for the beta readers (all eight of you, like, WOW) to get back to me. This will also be doubling as an opportunity for me to review the manuscript in depth and lay down the game plan for what I want to change to tighten it up for Carina Press.

I found a couple hundred words or so to remove in both Chapters 1 and 2, and I’m leaving off tonight in the middle of Chapter 3, with about 300 words removed. So far it’s about 800 words down, and closing in on the first K. Given that the target range is between 6 and 12K, this is a promising start. I’m going to try to avoid making any big changes on this pass, but I may tweak a few smaller things as I go.

Beta readers, when I send out the editor’s feedback to those of you who haven’t gotten it yet as well as the overall gameplan, I’ll note the stuff I’ve already changed. But don’t let that stop you from reporting anything you think is worth reporting, even if I might have already tweaked it on this fifth draft pass. And, again, many many thanks!

Edited this weekend: -818
Chapter 1 revised total: 3,163
Chapter 2 revised total: 3,040
Chapter 3 revised total: 4,181
Lament of the Dove revised total (fifth draft): 117,540