Finally, finally, today I finished the chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the novel. It’s 3400 words long and the total editing time for the document is around nineteen hours. I know I was not actively working on it for that long, but in some ways it feels like it took even longer than that. Like, forever.
The task now is to turn what I have into three pages of tight narrative, tracing the flow of the novel from beginning to end and making it sound irresistibly intriguing. I am cautiously optimistic that this part of the task will be easier and faster to accomplish. Okay, maybe not the “irresistible” part, but something at least interesting.
I’ve already bumped by self-imposed deadline for submitting this novel a few times. The last deadline was–today. I don’t think I’m going to make it. :) However, my new goal is two weeks from now. I’ve already bowed out of the F&SF Workshop critique cycle for the next two weeks and crossed some other committments off my to-do list. Let’s see if I can make it happen.
