Finally draft 2 of my historical novel has 200 pages ?? The 200 page mark is special to me. It fills me with a sense of accomplishment because those 200 pages are hard won. I have written way more than 200 pages in this draft but I had to cut a lot loose because it did not flow or fit. Cutting stuff is always painful. I never think though that I wasted my time writing things I did not keep because sometimes it takes a lot of words before the true path of the story can be uncovered. Also in the fodder of what is cast off may be the seed for another story. This current novel I am working on was inspired by an interaction between two characters that never made it into my novel, Eternal Beloved. Eternal Beloved took a lot of starts and stops before the story was done. Along the way I killed off and later un-killed several characters. (None came back from the dead. I just realized they didn't need to die to take the story forward.) The research I did for Eternal Beloved informed other aspects of my work and my life. Putting letters down is never wasted effort. Words lead somewhere. Follow...

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