It’s ridiculous to cut a story “because that’s the right length” for some random person. But I will cut a story for myself. Borrowed Skin has an interesting feel in terms of story structure/tempo. There’s an external rise and an external fall followed by a more important rise and a more important fall, then a stillness that contains more chaos than everything that came before.
Meanwhile, I’m learning interesting things about dragonflies for the (potential) WIP, “OWTGDIRON.” Or rather, in this case, about dragonfly-adjacent creatures. For example, I learned today that there are insects called “damselflies.” I don’t know if this is a commonly known insect in the US; I have never in my life heard of these creatures. At some point in the life cycle of damselflies, they’re called “aquatic nymphs.” That’s such a beautiful thing to be called. Much better than “teenager” or some such thing.