Back on the computer

God, I'm sick of these chapters! It's really feeling like a chore lately.

Today I decided to come back to the electronic file vs. the printed typescript. I'm making changes on a larger scale, moving big chunks around to see how they'll work together. Cutting and pasting felt like it was going to be more convenient electronically. (Have you ever noticed how sometimes a term can start out as a metaphor based on some older technology--like literally cutting and pasting bits of paper to edit a manuscript--and then become so common while the older technology dies out that the metaphorical reference is lost? "Dialing" a phone is another one. It's been 25 years since I literally dialed a phone number, but it's still the term.) Scattering my typescript all over the living room and moving chunks of the story around and handwriting in the connective tissue on loose leaf notebook paper just wasn't working for revisions this complex. So, back to the computer.

Status so far -- the 3 chapters together added up to 68 pp. I've trimmed it down to 42 pp. so far, some of that just temporarily to see how it looks without some material that I really want to keep. I haven't yet solved the problem of how to sneak in a lot of the background material. I have written a new climax to one scene. I still need to write the material that pivots the momentum toward the climax of the chapter. And I still need to rewrite that climax. I think I can get another 10 pages cut out without much trouble, and I'd prefer to get 15 out.

I'll be lucky to finish all that before the weekend. If I do, that would leave 5 chapters, which I should be able to do next week (back on paper). Four weeks for the "read through" as I've called it. One week more than estimated, but still on track to finish the revision way before the end of the semester.