Sigh.
The first drafts for the first fifteen days of The Wilhelm Scream were written quite a few months back now.
Since then, as I've edited, thought, and generally spent more time with Luke, Stef, et al, etc., I've come to find the later chapters more require re-writing than editing, a surprise for me since I didn't remember those first drafts as being thus.
But I was doing my best, soldiering along manfully, and then I came to chapter ten.
Ah.
One scene that was remembered as being important, and which is important going forward from this point, was breezed over in only a few paragraphs. Another scene featured an under-cooked character who really needed development, and in his development this allows me to drop a few more hints in about The Thing, ahead of when 'first draft me' imagined they would happen.
The upshot of this is that chapter ten, now I know where it's headed, is about 80% re-writing, plenty of scything out of vast tracts of text, and I don't imagine the remaining four chapters after this will be in any better shape.
Consequently, though the incidents shall remain as they were in terms of plot progression, I think that most of what was already written now needs to hit the recycle bin. Fortunately, Luke and Stef have a few little adventures left in them between now and the end of Book One, a new character will be along for the ride to keep me on my toes, and The Thing might not be quite so backgrounded as I'd orignally planned.
At least I can now see that Book One might come to its conclusion sometime around Day Sixteen, as by that stage Luke and Stef and The Thing should be where I need them to be for the conclusion that's coming.
Onward!
CH