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I've now cut an additional 20,000 words since my last post from the original 116,000 word manuscript. (49,000 words cut in all). Now at 67,000 words. The goal is to get the manuscript down to a size more common to middle school level books which is around 50,000.
The end of this week is the 199th anniversary of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. On the night of June 23rd, the French engineers built three pontoon bridges across the Nieman river. The following day, the 24th, the army began to cross from Poland into Russia. This morning I began my 4th editing pass through the manuscript. I think this one will be the toughest: cutting down on the beginning of the story while maintaining the storylines that carry through to the end.
I've started the process of cutting even more of the manuscript. My #1 editor (wife Sandie) and I talked about where the story should go and how the first part of the book could be trimmed while still maintaining the story lines.
There is now a plan for cutting down the first half of the manuscript and an idea for the sequel to Russian Snows which will involve bigger parts for some of the characters introduced in Russian Snows. |