Looking Good

Three and a half weeks to go and I'm down 19 chapters on my third draft. I've cut a sloppy 40.000 words and am now at 65.000 with less than half of the book left. I'm also at the point where I left the second draft hanging a few weeks ago. It was then that I came to my mini-revelation that I needed to cut, cut, CUT. I have cut so much I deserve an honorary position in Hollywood as a film editor or even a director (don't they like to say 'CUT'?)

Anyway, things that have not made the cut so far:

• Sally's side-story in Scandinavian viking/fairy tale city Ny Asgard after being kidnapped, 
• several scenes starring corporate villain Zuul acting behind the curtains,
• dialog explaining and references to various concepts/terminology within the series mythology,
• Alix's sequences when separated from Maya and Simon after they get lost in Mexico,
• any character with an origin other than the fairy tale genre (leaving that for Book 2)
• explaining how the magic system works (also Book 2)
• and much, much more dialog, descriptions and action

I slimmed down events and welded scenes together by dropping locations and having the action take place in a previously used location. This would save me a lot of words describing the locations, but also finding a rationale for the characters to be there. I've trimmed down explanations of how the mysterious and secretive world of Alix and Maya works. This leaves Simon a little bit more in the dark, but I wanted to focus on keeping the momentum going. Everything really is about speed now and I'm afraid Book 1 of the series might indeed seem too rushed. But hey, let's hope for a success so I can fire my editor and write a door stopper next. :)