According to the Word of Word, I’m on page 238 of 653 (word pagination doesn’t match up with print pagination, by the way – Book 2 will be roughly the same length as Book 1). so, about two-fifths of the way through, right?
Well… maybe. On the face of it, no – there’ll be more than one pass through. Right now, I’m in the middle of redrafting parts of the book. Taking out passages and subplots that don’t work, adding in replacements, cutting extraneous sections. There’ll be another pass of sanity-checking, another for style. So, if I’m going to go through the book another three or four times, then I’m only a fraction of the way through the revision process.
Fortunately for me – and even more fortunately, for my deadlines – the really hard part is this first pass. Here’s when the book turns to sand and threatens to fall apart; here’s where I’ve got to hold all the threads in my head at once; here’s where I’ve got to remember which metaphor I’m using, and change things so it’s either sand or thread, not both at the same time. Later on, when things are more solid/knotted together (mem: check this), I can make minor tweaks and beautify individual sentences. Right now, it’s all heavy lifting and major surgery, and I’m mixing metaphors again….
Gareth Hanrahan 