Throwing it all away

I was working on draft scenes in chapter 25 of 32, and I finally reached a point in the novel where I had to make a decision. I've been glossing over this section (about 6 chapters) where people are flying all over the place and the bulk of the Bad Things happen, because quite frankly it didn't really work and I knew I could come back to it.

I'd already written the aftermath and the beforemath (?), and so it came time to tackle the math itself. Hence decision time.

And what a fun day it's been. When the smoke cleared I discovered I'd thrown out a whole chunk of material - about 12,000 words all told - but I did have my outline for the last 8 chapters.

Is it set in concrete? No chance. But each run-through gets closer to the finished product, and involves smaller and smaller changes.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)