Concentration

I don't think I've ever concentrated so intensely on one thing for so long in all my life.  14 hours yesterday, barely getting up from the desk.

And this has been going on for several days.

I've lost 8 pounds, because I've forgotten to eat.  I fall into bed late at night and I'm out like a light.

Working at the store today is going to be a vacation.  (Even here, I find myself making notes -- but I purposely left the writing laptop at home.)

My prodigal book is killing me.

I hate humble-brags about how hard a person works -- but this is the real deal.

This is the last rewrite of Faerylander, for good or ill.  I just can't do it anymore.  Thing is, since I know it is going to be the last, I'm being very diligent in making sure all the pieces are right.  This is it on the structure.  I will be doing a lot of editing, yet.  Especially since I'm changing the main character from 3rd person to 1st person but I am done rearranging the narrative or chapters.

The reason it takes so much concentration is that I have to keep all the storylines in my head -- multiple storylines, actually, since I have so many versions. Notes don't really help -- the notes would have to be as extensive as the story. 

The new chapter that inspired the rewrite has helped -- but the rest of the book is what it is.  Fortunately, I had done much of the continuity work on the version before last, so by reverting to it, I've saved myself a lot of work.  I've also been incorporating Linda's corrections as I go along.

It's going to be about 100K words, in-between my normal 80K for my other books and the 135K this book was in the last version.  (If I incorporated everything I've written, it would be over 150K.)

I'm going to order my editors to cut everything and anything that is unnecessary or doesn't work or slows down the story.  Give them permission to use the knife.

I'm undecided about included Cobb's Bestiary.  I like the entries, but they kind of clutter things up.  I probably will, though.

I can't tell if it is any good.  But if hard work will make it so...