Homestretch

I finished Ch. 12 a couple days ago and Ch. 13 today--with the usual caveat. "Finished" really just means I dealt with the issues I had notes on. In the meantime new issues make themselves apparent, some of which I make new notes on to deal with the next time around.

Ch. 13, though long, didn't have too much to fix, and I don't think Ch. 14 will either. Ch. 15 is the last chapter excepting the epilogue, and the ending and denouement need very delicate work, so I expect to slow down a little there. In theory I could be done with this rewrite by the end of next week. But I don't plan to call it until I circle around and tidy up several things that I left behind along the way. I'm not sure how long that will take, but I doubt more than a couple weeks. I'll be done way ahead of my Christmas deadline and perhaps before Thanksgiving even.

More and more doubts are nagging me, but I'm brushing them off and sprinting for the finish. I'm taking the attitude that what I need most of all is some outside perspective and there's not much point in figuring out what the remaining problems are until I get that perspective. It's sort of like straightening up the house before the maid arrives. I'm not taking it too seriously.

(Not that I expect any friend who reads this to act like a maid. They'll be doing hard work in reading and evaluating, but it will be up to me to clean up the mess. I guess I need a better analogy.)

Other notes:
-Did I mention my injured foot from basketball last week and therefore no basketball this week and in fact not much physical activity of any kind?
-Following the election is driving me crazy. I spend more time on that than working on the book.
-There has been a significant change in my work habits . . . for the reason mentioned above and the consequence is that I often don't get to work first thing. The good news is that I don't apparently NEED to get to work first thing as much as previously. In the past, a little bit of procrastination meant a whole day last. Lately I've been able to force myself to get a late start and be productive for a few hours.