Update: Final tweaking plus surprise revision
Okay, so I definitely expected to be in the final tweaking stage for SC #3, which I am.
But I did NOT expect to suddenly realize I should cut chapter 13 in half and move half of it up and create a new chapter 6. Wait, I mean 7. Or 8? No, chapter 7.
And should I move chapters 13 and 14 above chapters 11 and 12? Let’s try that.
No, let’s move those two back.
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Anyway, a surprising amount of shifting stuff up and down. This is occurring partly because an early reader said, “Wait, are these chapters out of order?” and the answer was, “No, but on reflection I see why you thought so.”
So I’ve added time cues for most of the chapters in the first half of the book, plus, as I say, I’ve moved half of one chapter. And I think that’s it for structure! I’m almost sure.
Wow, does a lot happen fast. A bunch of chapters are taking place within minutes of each other. There are about five chapters in a row where I refer to “dusk” or “sunset” in the first couple of paragraphs to help readers stay confident about the timing.
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What I’m doing now, however, truly is final tweaking. I’m re-reading from the top, tweaking and trimming and tightening. I’ve added the revised character list, which is now spoilery, so I also added a warning at the top of the character list in case readers flip to the back to see who someone is while halfway through the story. It’s possible they may find out more than they wanted to know; thus, the warning. I may still decide to reduce the spoilery nature of the final character list. I have days and days to change my mind about that.
The full length, counting the character list, made it to 190,000 words. The character list is really long! It’s 5000 words! I’m trimming just a bit as I do this final read-through, so the book itself shouldn’t be a lot over 180,000 words. Maybe a bit.
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I’m looking forward to finishing this up. Almost there! So close!
The only other thing I’d like to do in December is finish “Midwinter,” thus clearing the decks for something else in January.
I think I know what I want to do first-off next year. Maybe. I wanted to finish Tano’s next story, and that’s still a priority. But I have a great idea for an episodic story, a series of vignettes, in the Tuyo world, which would work beautifully for the newsletter and might go long enough to constitute a decent novella. I’m thinking maybe I’ll aim to write that in January, first thing. I won’t be sure till I actually do it. But it’s a great idea. I’d tell you about it, but if it doesn’t work after all, that would be disappointing, so I won’t.
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