A Semi-Polished Draft of Chapter 4: Done!

Whoa!  I knew that Chapter 4 would move pretty fast since I did have the bones of the biggest scene written.  But I didn’t expect it to take less than two weeks. 

I have now just about reached the point where my previous draft of this novel began.  I’ve added 37 pages and perhaps 7000 words.  And all happened in about 17 hours of my main character’s life. 

So working with Chapter 5, my former Chapter 1, should be interesting.  I already cannibalized (in the engineering sense) certain sections of my old opening chapter for earlier scenes.  That has shortened it considerably.  But I’ll definitely be needing to add new things in that reflect my main character’s new reality.

In some ways, revising a novel is a bit like going into one of those alternate Star Trek universes where people look very much the same, but have slightly different histories and priorities.   I’ll have a little more to say about first chapters in an upcoming post.