Me, when I receive feedback that I asked for: But… but… you-don’t-understand-that-scene-is-important-because-world-building-and-character-development-and-it-took-a-long-time!!!

The Voice in the Back of My Head (also Me): “Kill your darlings.”

Today’s cards were the Ace of Pentacles, the Queen of Wands, and the King of Swords. So, in the interest of manifesting abundance, leaning into social situations and accepting the truth from an advisor… I followed the advice of a member of my writing group and cut an 1100 word flashback from chapter one. (And by “cut,” I mean, cut it out of the WIP manuscript and pasted it into the Revision Notes doc in-case-I-need-it-later. I’m not a murderer.)

But damn if the chapter doesn’t flow better.

There are now fewer characters, more action, and less MC narration in the first chapter. All of which are notes I have given myself (and some of which other readers have also given me) in previous drafts, and I attempted to solve by wRiTinG MoRe.

Guess we’re still embracing that waning moon mindset…