Try This - 9.2

 

Take the manuscript you worked on Try This 9.1. Toss out page 1. Try beginning with the first whole paragraph on page 2. Doesn't work?

Then:

Print out (or digitally separate) the first three pages of your story. Put them side by side and start cutting --a descriptive phrase here, a line of dialogue there. Do away with a flashback, an adjective, a dialogue tag.  How much can you do without and still begin the story? Can you condense the first three pages to a half-page paragraph?