Wow, I’m no longer totally married to every single word in the novel.

I got a request for the manuscript from an agent whom I queried a month ago, and decided that I should probably take a look at it before sending it along- the last rejection came with a note that said she thought it was too expository, which was a little cryptic and, fine, hurt my feelings.

Re-reading it today, huh. I kinda get it. I just went through the first two chapters and cut out almost a thousand words- roughly ten percent of the text. And, you know, the ones that came out were the ones that were expository. Places where the narrator describes a situation, then tells you how the characters feel about it. That’s rarely necessary- a reader will determine for him- or herself what the characters think of those things, and some of the fun of reading is letting these things come in time. It’s hard to pull that off as you write sometimes, at least for me, because I am still learning how the characters feel about them, and so it’s a sort-of scaffolding for me to hang my ideas on. Now that I know what each glance each character makes means, I’ve come to realize that a reader will be able to figure that out, too.

I’m excited about sending the book on to the agent, but I can’t do it today. At the very least, the first half of the book needs some more pruning. It’s interesting, though, because nothing has really changed- the only difference between now and when I thought that I was ready to really gut the thing ten weeks ago is that I’m not so in love with the way that my words sound.

Kind of a cool twist, really.