I started outlining Chapter 22 of "Listening to Jack" today. I already had bits and pieces of it written, but I thought I'd actually (for once) try to map out the specifics of a chapter before writing it all out.
The bad news is that I realized - quickly - that I was headed down the same hole that I did with the took-too-long-to-write Chapter 20. Which is to say that while I want a certain Very Big Thing to happen in Chapter 22, there's plenty of other shit that needs to happen, too. And I can already see that Chapter 22 is going to be massive.
The good news? Unlike Chapter 20, I think Chapter 22 should be pretty easy to break into three distinct parts. So, Chapter 22 is becoming Chapters 22-24, with the certain new Very Big Thing happening in 24, with 22 and 23 leading up to it. The overall length will be the same, but I should be able to publish the individual chapters faster.
This isn't really surprising to me. My original outline for "Jack" was that it was going to be eight chapters. (Insert laughter here.) But I think this will allow the story to progress better than if I just dove into the chapter and tried to cram two tons of story into it.