Today I did it. The scenes marked with “may cut” have, indeed, been cut. I adjusted later places in the story that had referred back to the scenes, and it looks as if I have done minimal damage to the story. This is another sign that those scenes needed cutting; one theory has it that if a scene can be easily removed, it should be removed from the story.

Word count: just under 99,000 words
Page count: 400pp.

‘Nuff said.