Managed to get through five chapters. Only dropped the story by 1,600-words or so. At this rate I will still have a 170,000-word novel when the first pass is over. That's about 700 pages. Too long. Important things are going to have to go in the second pass. Hopefully, it won't affect the flow. Right now the story reads incredibly well - and fast. It pulls me along, defying me to find other interests to supercede it. Necessity is the only thing right now.
So, I have six chapters remaining and the final interlude with Shatahar. About 50,000-words. Chapters in Prophecies of Madatar run long, averaging close to 9,000-words each. That's a fifty-percent overrun. Ideally, chapters should be 6,000-words. Or less. LOTS of cutting required. Not sure why I'm not depressed about it. Cutting Traitor was a nightmare, and I even saw where it could be done. Not so obvious with Prophecies of Madatar. Guess I'm still feeling good about the fact Traitor hasn't been rejected - yet. Statistically, it will be. But it isn't about statistics. Statistically, NO ONE can win the lottery. Yet every year six or more people do. The frustrating thing about queries is they take away the author's opinion entirely. All that matters with a query letter is what the agent believes. Or editor. Depends on where the query was sent.
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