Heavy Edits

I feel like a pirate writer. I just want to yell: AARGGGHHH!

I've slashed my way through my current MS in a way I would have considered down right dangerous before today. I have several story lines in the one book. It's political, it's love story and it's military all in one. Each part of the story creates consequences for the others so I've kept it together in one file. Unfortunately, things are getting neglected because the scenes around them are so big it's hard to find them under all that muscle.

So I dissected it. Like a pirate gutting an octopus. (Do pirates eat octopus. I've heard it's good but I've never tried it myself.)

I took out all the scenes relating to the love story and I'm going to work on those first. Then I took out all the political scenes and then all the military ones. I have three different files and feel like I've voluntarily climbed onto the plank.

Have you ever done something like this to your manuscript before? Was it worth it? Do you have any tips for a girl's first time committing piracy?