Okay, not entirely bad. When I synched files on Saturday I'd just started the "Belloq" scene. Wrote the first draft that day. Did a complete rewrite of it today and now it is starting to look like a scene.
I don't have hard numbers on how many writers rewrite as they go. Some day it is a terrible idea. More have no problem with it but don't do it. I think it does require a certain level of understanding and confidence so you don't get bogged down in Oscar Wilde'ing your commas instead of finishing the whole draft.
After three books in the series, though, I have pretty good confidence in where I'm going to end up and what is going to stay through the final revision. So I can afford to rewrite a scene now, with the ending still 10,000 words away.
On the other hand, that's all for a thousand-word scene. Sure, I also revised the much shorter scene preceding it, and got a start at the following scene, and did several rounds of revisions tightening up the Apaches scene.
I had Penny doing a little sword play to show off but cut that to focus on this being parkour. That scene is now firmly part of a strong sub-thread of this book; Penny finally starting to trust her instincts. She's been telling herself her "stunts" are wild leaps of faith and she just keeps getting lucky, but of course she is more skilled than she's willing to admit. In the parkour scene is the first place where she gets a glimpse that she's actually been doing rational analysis of her skills and the odds each time. Well, most times. Other times it is just scream and leap. She'd make a good Kzinti.
These are two back-to-back scenes (all taking place at the same cafe table) that are turning out to be much harder than I had thought. On paper they looked simple. Unfortunately a lot of the big character arcs are in play here and that means I'm trying again and again to find just the right approach for them.
Today I got lucky. The breakfast place was jammed and while I waited for my food to arrive I got the "you and I are much alike" conversation rewritten and made good progress on the scene where Penny actually tells someone what she has been up to.
I sure hope the big Steampunk Garden Party won't be a nightmare. I almost feel like I should chart that one out but I'm just gonna try to wing it. At the current rate of progress, I'm over a month out on finishing the book.
Started filling out the KDP data. I do have to pick a firm date, though, if I want to upload that new cover. Because then it will be on pre-sale.
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