I heard back from my newest beta-reader last week. He agreed with some of the feedback I’d received before — more action, less rainy days.

One week later, I’m down over 10,000 words.

20 pages turned into seven paragraphs. Followed by a bit more trimming here and there. A bit less drastic.

He also suggested I cut the phrase “a bit”. I’m down to 5 out of 203 instances.

No need to hedge, say what I mean.

I can probably get it down another 10,000 words. Let’s see what I do this week.