This morning I kicked my houseguest to the curb (okay, I put her in a cab) and returned to the usual schedule of All Book All Day.
Second pass on this book is…different. I’m not changing actual scenes, but instead adding or subtracting lines to support other elements elsewhere in the book, and/or changing details to match on-going research. It’s less a revision and more a fine-tuning… and yet, those fine-tunings are significantly revising the story. Â As an example of this, it took me AN HOUR to rework a passage (three short paragraphs) to my satisfaction, which created a cascading change for the next three chapters.
I haz a headache.
I also resurfaced after 5 hours of work to become very puzzled by the chatter on Twitter, as though I were having to reacquaint myself with this century all over again. Â Tomorrow will be more of the same, with the hope-and-the-plan being to make it to chapter thirteen (I’m currently 3/4 of the way through chapter 8).
Because on Wednesday, Travel Companion and I are packing up and heading to Kansas (well, Missouri-to-Colorado by way of Kansas) to drive the route (more or less) my characters are taking, so I can fact-check and extrapolate-with-confidence the details of their ride*.
Next person who says “oh, writing fantasy is easy, you just make stuff up?” Â Send them to me so I can slap the stupid out of them.
And oh yeah by the way? DEAD MAN’S HAND is on-sale tomorrow. Â In case you want a fix of The Devil’s West (and some other fabulous stories) a little early…
*No, we are not renting an Impala. Â We can’t afford to feed it.