I've spent 52+ years on this earth, reading and writing English through most of them. In all this time, I've NEVER been able to use homonyms 100% correctly. I've a paper from an 11th grade creative writing course which is liberally sprinkled with red marks for using the wrong homonyms - so now you know that beyond being homonymically challenged, I'm also a bit of a pack rat.
It's so bad, I'm considering giving up English for Lent - or forever - if I can find a language where there are no stinking homonyms for me to trip over.
In other news, I have finally broken the log-jam which assaulted me on Chapter 23 and re-sketched my plan for the conclusion of this part of the story. It resulted in me changing some things and adding a new chapter or 2 that I didn't really want but needed. It also made me re-think a few minor plot details - but I think it's going to work better this way.
I've used a weird but effective method for writing this story. I always outline the plot beforehand, so I know roughly where I'm at and where I'm trying to go. Much like a battleplan in a war, the outline never truly survives contact with the written page - but it keeps me honest. Usually, I try to write every niggling detail in one pass, then modify it as time goes on to fit in new key points and so on.
I didn't do that this time. I wrote the outline, of course, but then I just put 'the bare bones' on the page - no overt color, no overt 'pretty' stuff...just the facts, ma'am; which is to say, I didn't consciously avoid description, I just didn't make it a priority. I then firmed up the plot lines, introducing things as I needed for future arcs and so on. Finally, on my last draft pass, I put in the 'color' stuff - such as how a person looks, sounds, views, etc. It worked surprisingly well in keeping me on my toes.
Now, when I prepare a chapter for posting, I read through it (hopefully catching any glaring errors). I find there are sentences, paragraphs and whole sections I have to re-write sometimes - but it actually helps to keep me honest. For example, Arlade's hair was short in one part of the tale but I'd made it longer in another. I probably won't catch every discrepancy (and I haven't; a reader pointed out I had the princess eating in her carriage at one point then magically out of her carriage a little later so I had to clean that mess up) but it seems to help me make more sense of the story while keeping everyone true to their nature.