Flip.. flop!! Owch...

Oh man, re-reading my earlier post about flip flopping... yeah, it's true, up and down a writer goes, but really, all the creative visualization in the world doesn't guarantee relief when the flop hits. It can help with climbing out of the whole in the sand your confidence made when it hit ground, but there's not a lot you can do to prevent the flop. That said, getting up and getting moving again is really, really important to success (in anything). Find a way.

So I'm looking at my completed novel (that is still in revision) and realizing I've got a lot of cutting to do. 237k words is a big book. 150k is the typical top end for SciFi/Fantasy, according to a few sources I've read. 90,000 extra words is a big chunk of writing (um, it's another book's worth). Then again, I've read that a story needs what it needs to be told. My question is, because I'm a new writer, am I making mistakes that bloat the novel unnecessarily? And will I need to drastically cut it for to be considered by agents?

So many questions about this novel. Should it be cut in two? Should it be put aside in favor of starting a novel with a smaller scale? Is it ready for beta readers as is? It's epic... a lot happens.. is it too complex? Oh the questions...

... and yet, when I read it, I fall into it again. I find myself reading it. I've been told my writing is clear and readable. I've been told it has good pace and keeping track of all that's going on is not difficult. All I can do is keep making it into something I want to read, something to my standard, and then see what querying agents turns up.

This came across my FB page today and I had to grab it... it spoke to me.