Delete. Delete. DeleteDeleteDeleteDelete.

I have discovered the wonders of cutting! I thought I would be afraid of cutting my precious words but, no. I lurve the cutting. I have a document where I'm pasting all the chopped out bits, just in case I want to put them back in or use parts of them later (which has happened several times -- I've stolen back phrases or sentences but left the bulk of the section out), so I have no fear or angst over "losing" the words I originally composed. And it's making my writing soooooooooo much better.

For example, Chapter Two opening before:

The back of the limo is hushed. I lean my head against the cool window and watch the lights go by on the *whatever highway*. I am exhausted, tense, achy. I press the buttons on the audio system that let me cycle through the music selections, which are mostly classical. I choose *Mozart's Requiem* and settle back against the soft leather seat.

I wake up when I hear the driver's door close. Mikhail opens my door and I am greeted by Winterhaven, Faust's beautiful mansion.

Chapter Two opening after:

“Welcome back to Winterhaven, Ms. Reed.”

Mikhail holds the door to the limo open while I take in the sight of Faust’s mansion bathed in moonlight.

I started out trying to rewrite the sentences, but then I realized part of the reason I was struggling with this bit was that I was trying to say something about nothing. Who cares that she's taking a car ride? I don't need to show that to the audience to let them know that she's tired and stressed from the previous scene. That will show itself during the upcoming scene. Delete!

Now, there's still some tweaking potential here. I'd like to find a way to condense "take in the sight of", though 'behold' is all that's coming to mind at the moment and that sounds too dramatic. And "bathed in moonlight" sounds awfully cliche. But I'm satisfied with the transformation of this bit for a first pass.

Critique Partners, take note: there is hope that you won't have to read 1,083,228 pages after all. ;)