Word count: 63704 | Since last entry: -68 | This month: 8903 I had a couple of killer days at work, leaving me with little energy for anything else, and then we had taxes to prepare (we use an accountant, but it still takes a whole evening or more to pull the papers together) and plane reservations to make for this summer’s trip to France. So no writing Tuesday or Wednesday. Tonight I started to tear Chapter A apart and reassemble it in a way that fits with the new Jason introduced in the new Chapter Zero. This involves changes in backstory, timeline, and motivation as well as attitude, though not a lot of changes in the actual incidents and actions of the chapter. As long as I was revising the chapter, I cut several paragraphs on principle, so the word count is actually going down at the moment. I’m going to count each anti-word double for purposes of my star chart (-50 = silver, -250 = gold, -500 = red), because cutting is harder than drafting, so I get a silver star for tonight’s -68 words. (This doesn’t address the question of how to handle a good solid revision session that happens to wind up with the same word count, but I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.) At the moment the chapter is spread out on the workshop floor. I anticipate it will take a couple of days to get it degreased and reassembled; then I’ll haul out my notes from critique and see if anything else needs to be revised. Then I’ll do the same for Chapter 1 — though I’m not going to attempt to make Clarity more alien at this time, that’s too big a job for now — and do the outline and cover letter. I have a little more than a week until crit group, about two weeks until the Lupton deadline. It’s going to be tight.