Couldn't face rewriting a previously written chapter from scratch, or the chapter after that, so moved onto a chapter that was fresh.

So the two skipped chapters still have to be rewritten, along with about three partial chapters, probably taking me to somewhere around 34K words before I move into all new territory.

It's gotten harder and harder to do the same thing twice, though every single time I've done it, I've been very happy with the result. So I'm going to force myself this weekend to do the final two complete chapters.

If nothing else it will provide an internal consistency in sequence and tone, instead of me trying to move and change stuff around to fit.

Since I fully intend to raid the first version for pertinent fragments, it'll be good to have a solid framework to hang it on. As I said, this will probably bring the book to about 40K words or so.

And the Twist is still in the future. My goal all along was to hold off the Big Reveal until no sooner than 2/3rds of the way through, preferably 3/4ths of the way through. I think this is now achievable.



Wrote one of the two skipped chapters. It's taking all my willpower to finish this process. These later chapters were more complete and fit the story better. I have to remind myself that continuity wasn't the only reason I was doing this.

Doing the same thing twice from scratch is just a way of more fully imagining the scene, so that when I combine the two versions it will feel more thought out. All it requires is more work, and more work and time is all I can do to try to improve.

The real problem is that story is somewhat pedestrian. I mean, there is a lot of interaction that is somewhat humdrum.

Someone asked what was happening in current WIP and the answers by other writers were dramatic and exotic.

In mine? "The characters are having tea and talking about house renovations--and flirting."

I may be in the wrong business.