Finally, I'm making decent editing progress again. Chapter 4, the menace of my existence, is behind me. The new version will probably be chapters 4, 5, and 6, just because it's so long. Original word count: 13303 Revised word count: 9320 Down by almost 4000 words in just one chapter! And the total has gone from 22274 to 16286. Nearly 6000. That says something about where the most bloat was. Of my intended cuts, I have about 14000 left to trim out. If I can manage even just an average of 500 words cut per chapter remaining, that's 13000, VERY close to my goal. 6000 per 4 the rest of the way would be 39000, and would put my 160k novel at 115k. I don't expect it will be that dramatic a cut. Probably somewhere between 120k and 140k. Hopefully in a range where agents will no longer flinch when I tell them the word count.