This is hard work, but I think I'm coming up with a version Faerylander that is consistent in tone. The structural problems are always going to be there since they were there at the beginning, but I can ameliorate the problem with better writing.

I finally found a version among the previous rewrites where I like the writing slightly better than the others -- just a random version in the middle of all the writing. But I think I'm going to be using it as my touchstone from here on.

I'm getting it done. It will require yet another rewrite, but at least I'll have the basic book in place. This has to be the version I go with. There is no sense shuffling the chapters around endlessly. Find a version and stick with it and make the writing as polished as possible.

It's clear that I tried to jam too much plot and characters into one book, and to do that, I cut too much of the little stuff that makes a book. This helps the book breath a little. 

I'm noticing the characters are coming alive for me more and more, so I think rather than wait to do a rewrite, I'll do it immediately and try to impart my sense of who these characters are.

I hate to pay my editor the 3rd or 4th time for the same story--crazy spending--but this is such a amalgamation of different versions, it's bound to have inconsistencies. Maybe I can talk Lara into just doing a copy-edit/consistency version for slightly cheaper. (Though I know she's already giving me a deal.)

On my walk yesterday without my computer I came up with dozens of embellishments, which I tried to remember to write down when I got to the car. I guess I need to take my computer with me every time.

I don't know why this book has captures me so often. There is just something about it. First love?