Second draft through chapter four has just been finished.  The introduction and chapters one through three were more like revisions whereas chapter four was a complete rewrite.  As soon as I was done with chapter four I realized that every chapter from here on out will have to be so changed from the developments made in the story that they’ll each essentially have to be rewritten completely.

I would find this dismaying except that as I’m going through this process it seems completely organic and good that I’ve fine tuned the plots and characters so much that the second draft is mostly a rewrite.  I would find it harder to take if I didn’t see how much better the rewrite of chapter four is now compared to before.  I wasn’t all that excited to write it because it was a snooze-fest.  It was an entire chapter setting up the next one but what I realized is that there shouldn’t be a single chapter about which I can personally say it puts me to sleep.

If I can say that about any chapter it means the story isn’t moving there.  Chapter four used to tire me but now it’s my favorite one because it sets up a lot of the plot that plays out later and is full of discovery and tension.

Chapter four is so good that I’m afraid to write chapter five for fear it will just suck.  What’s good in chapter five?  Malakai the Mormon crime boss.  (Excuse me while I go make a note of something I just thought of which needs to happen in chapter five which will make it even more exciting)

Being in the last third of November puts a real fire under my ass as far as deadlines go.  I have about fifteen chapters to complete before January!

I better get cracking.