What to cut and what not to cut.

I started cutting Nearly Human yesterday, at the editor's recommendations.   Cut about 6000 words in the first 50 pages or so.

It can be hard to know whether what I'm cutting is completely unnecessary, but I'm making my best guess.  If it doesn't advance the plot then it better be pretty important to characterization or it goes out.

I'm hoping to cut as much as 20,000 words and get the book lean and mean at about 100,000 words.

But I also decided to move the chapter with Lovecraft up much earlier in the book, as well as a chapter with Arthur Conan Doyle/Houdini that I had previously cut.  Then I wrote a brand new chapter with C.S. Lewis.  I mostly use their own words in these chapters, sometimes paraphrased and taken out of context, but put into their mouths.  I'm planning to write a Charles Williams chapter, too.

Lara really liked these chapters, and I do think they are maybe interesting to people who like these kinds of books.  I really liked writing them.

I'm hoping she can get me some recommendations of what to cut and condense.  I'm really having a hard time seeing my book as anything other than a jumble of words.  It always gets to this point with me, if I work on a book long enough.  It doesn't mean the writing is bad -- in fact, the very fact that I've put so much work in it means it's probably improved.  It's just that I can't feel it anymore.

I can look at a sentence and logic out that maybe it doesn't propel the story, but I can't figure out if there is a "feel" reason for it to be there.  So, I'm worried this is a little dangerous.  So that's why I'm hoping Lara has enough time to figure out what she thinks could be cut.

So...another two or three days of cutting, and then a complete read through and then I send it off to the publisher.