Is this revision?

I badly want to have a sense of making progress, so I've taken to referring to my current work as revision vs. the rewriting I've been doing for more than a year now. The idea is that I'm not developing the work so much as clarifying and sharpening it. As usual, the very next thing I work on makes a lie of that. There are no bright lines in this process.

My plan to hit one chapter per day is not going quite as planned. I spent one day on Chapter 1, but it was a full day neglecting other responsibilities, so really it ought to count as two. And I allowed myself two days on Chapter 2, finishing this morning. I just couldn't see moving on when other problems seemed so glaring and some solutions seemed near at hand with a little concentration. Hopefully I won't feel every chapter needs that much work I won't get all the way through it before I have to hand it off to my reader. I talked to him last night and he said right after Christmas. He also laughed when I explained my rationale about revising vs. rewriting.

I've been having a lot of trouble with my eyes, and I'm worried about it. It's actually causing me not to work as much as I want to.I had them checked less than a year ago and the doctor said my prescription hasn't changed and isn't likely to at my age for several more years. I guess that means they can just get tired without the vision necessarily deteriorating, but it still makes me nervous to be looking at the screen so much. It also makes it hard to watch TV and to read, and that, along with surfing the internet, accounts for about 90% of my waking hours. If I can't read or watch TV, how am I supposed to pass the time? I'm going to have to ration myself so that I can stay in good enough shape to finish the novel. (Probably shorter blog posts will help.)

Next up, Chapter 3. I've come to the conclusion that this chapter is seriously flawed and underdeveloped and it needs some kind of unifying thread to bring it together. So, it needs some thought, and I've timed my schedule to leave me the rest of today and the weekend to stew on it and make notes. Hopefully I can knock out whatever solution I come up with on Monday.