The Big Plot Twist

One more chapter to write of "Shadows over Summer House" where I actually know where I'm going. It is one of the partial chapters I wrote before this version, so I will finally catch up. A little over 50K words, so this is officially a book if I can find an ending. (I'm guessing at least 5K words collated from the previous version and another 5K from a routine rewrite, so more like 60K so far.)

Now, I have to construct a heist, and then a final confrontation. Only vague glimmerings of these.

Somewhere in the middle of the climax I reveal The Big Plot Twist. Then I have to go back and decide how many hints I want to include, to play fair. Or maybe no hints, I'm not sure.

If I write steadily, I'll be done with this version somewhere around mid-March. This will be the longest I've spent on a first draft of a book. I want to give it a good solid rewrite. So that will take me until April before I have an officially completed first draft.

That's assuming that the story keeps flowing. I'm not writing over blocks this time. I'm waiting for inspiration.

Assuming I finish, I'm setting the manuscript aside for a minimum of two months. This is something new, at least on a purposeful basis. But I've learned over the last few books that after a couple of months I tend to come up with substantial improvements. So this time, I'm adding this cooling-off period to the process. Add in the editor time, and a final rewrite and this book will probably take more than six months to complete. Which is way longer than usual.

However, about 2 of those months aren't actually spent writing, so I can turn my attention to other projects during that time. Still, even 4 months is longer than normal for me.