Weight Watchers for my Novel

The average first novel ranges in length from 60,000-90,000 words. The Journey is approximately 214,000 words. So I begin stressing out over the idea of skimming my novel down by more than half because it'll end up looking like a third world country refugee. My mom tells me, "Since when have you done things the way everyone else does?" She has a point.

The Journey has six main characters. Count that: six! They each have their own journey to experience which means my novel has six smaller stories within that whole story. I was asked what the main thread to my novel is. And it was best explained as six different threads braided together. (thanks Dav Freedman) So with six different MAIN characters it's impossible to tell the story in 60,000-90,000 words. Will I be trimming the fat? Of course, those who know me best know I am always trying to trim the fat. But trimming the fat may mean I get the book down to 200,000 words. Maybe my book would be considered chubby or big boned then. Who knows?

The self editing process is tedious though. Well I enjoy writing, thrive on it actually, I can definitely say that I hate editing. Grammar and spelling are not my strong suit and the computer only catches so much, so you have to go through it yourself with a fine tooth comb. For example if you misspell a word, but it spells another word correctly then the computer won't catch that. And then there are content fix-ups that need to be done. This story took me about four months to write, so it may take about half that time to properly edit the book.

Patience is a virtue I don't have. Anyone know where I can purchase a bushel of it?