The second edit pass on the second half of the book and we’re well into Heart of Darkness territory, just without the racism, frequent violence and Francis Ford Coppola coked off his gourd making the movie version. I spent a lot of time today pruning needless words out, which was easy and completely rebuilding two endcaps both in Chapter 11. As in rewriting them from scratch. One’s fine and the other is a tired journalist talking about being a tired journalist. We’ll see how that stands when I start with Chapter 11 tomorrow. I also dumped a reference I realized I’d made twice and spotted what I think is another one so I’m starting to get to the fiddly stuff which is nice.
It doesn’t particularly feel it though and I suspect that’s a good thing. Any time I’ve looked at something I’ve done and gone ‘THIS is surely a heartbreaking work of towering genius!’ it turns out to really not be. When I get to the point where I’m feeling distanced from the project, that’s often a good thing and that’s where I am right now. Tomorrow, a third pass, starting with chapter 11 and the day after, the fun really begins. More about that tomorrow.