I got up early this morning, went downstairs, and got back to the revisions. I left off last night at page 6. Pages 7 through 29: all cut. I made pages and pages of notes of the key points from the stuff that I’m taking out, but everything in these first 29 pages (except for two paragraphs on page 3) is just backstory. Here’s what Holly Lisle has to say about that:
“If the scene just tells the reader about your world or its history, or lacks characters, conflict, and change, put a note in your spiral-bound notebook telling yourself which important points of worldbuilding you’re cutting, and draw a big X through the entire scene.”
And if scene after scene after scene contains nothing but backstory and description, well, the “revisions” go pretty quickly:
Pay no attention to the notes on a few of the pages — I started to revise, then realized the scene just needed to be cut. The notes I’m making now will be helpful later, and soon enough I’ll get through these early scenes. Then the real pain will start.
The Unfocused Life 