nearly done

The current story is still not done and has been a lot more work than I expected. I'm not complaining--I'm enjoying writing it--but it has been a lot harder to put it together properly than any of the others in this series.

So far I've stripped it back a long way by removing redundant verbiage, cut some scenes that took me down rabbit-holes, and restructured elements of the plot. It is back up to 22,000 words, but they are better words.

Having said that, once I've worked out how to bring this draft home, I am acutely conscious that it will need a thorough re-write before I can let anyone else see it. I'm also conscious that I am putting in bits of information that only make sense if you have already read the earlier stories in the sequence.

In my notebook, waiting patiently, is a bare outline of the next thing I'll write, which contains no macabre elements at all. I have been giggling a lot as I make notes. I'm not sure of that is a good or a bad sign.