How long do you keep your false starts before you admit you're probably not going to work on them anymore? Cause last summer, I had what felt like this awesome idea, you know, but stuff got in the way, and now I'm not sure that it's any good...should I throw it out?

Call it deep archiving and stick in a sub/sub/sub folder. Or onto a CD. If you've got any doubt at all about throwing it out, keep it.

I'm not really short of space, but I don't think it's very good anymore either.

I don't ever throw anything out, erika. I think it's worth it to hold onto to stuff to look at later, even if it's only so you can say, "Wow, I'm so much better at this now."

Yeah, I tend to cringe when I look at some of my stuff from years ago. And it's not just "Wow, I'm so much better at this now," it's "I actually thought that was GOOD back then?"

Save it away if space isn't an issue. Maybe you might want to use the idea again, if not the prose.

If nothing else, there may be a phrase that doesn't completely suck that you can use again.

Well, I've got 53 pretty much done, but the end is contingent on 54 and 54 has been trouble. I had a 54, but my wife looked at it and thought it didn't work, the characters went too far too fast. She's totally right, I tried to cram too much into too few words. I working on a slower version now which actually works out as being more dramatic since issues aren't getting solved two paragraphs later.

This brings me back to the dilemma, go big or go small. If I don't compress things in this part and don't compress the conclusion, I'm looking at 140k wc. I also have a subplot that is underdeveloped, and I've been chided for too little detail about the setting and characters (I have to be careful about that, too much detail is not considered a good thing by and large). I could add carefully sprinkle in bits to give the characters a bit more history too.

If I go big, I've got two books, likely cut at chapter 34. The end of 34 with an extra chapter to tie things up is a natural, if unexpected, ending. I think I'd have about two 90-100k books that way.

If I go small, I need to cut, cut , cut. Take a big part out of the beginning, remove the Savin & Rainier characters, remove the journey back to he Imperial City, cut a few more minor scenes, and maybe have a portion of the story that is played out be background. I can't help but think that will not be good for the story.

Erika, never heard of anyone paying for Betas. People pay for editors, but that is a whole new issue. I'm in the midst of something, but will probably have some dead time in the next three weeks. If you send me the thing, at some point I will beta for you. It won't cost you a cent, and will be worth at least what you pay for it.

Chapters 1-34 are 78k so that would make it very viable with a strengthened Savin storyline. I could land that at 100k. I may have to go big.