I’m getting impatient and almost added the book description to the Fantasy page. It is… not ready, to put it mildly. I did stick it at the top of the manuscript doc, though, so I have to look at it at least briefly every day upon opening and can noodle with it as inspidesperation1 moves me.2 I instead satisfied my need for administrative progress by uploading the final cover to retailers so it’s at the top of my drafts to greet me when I log in.3
ETA: The Fantasy page is temporarily gone, not because I’ve canned the book but because I can’t have a pre-pub “reveal” if a slightly shabbier version of the cover has been sitting there this entire time and I’ve succumbed to temptation to prematurely post the jacket copy. It’ll be back when the book is more than an empty promise.
125 rough draft pages have become 203 revised pages.4 We can now do the Halfway Hustle! Remember, the pelvic thrust when coming out of the twirl goes toward the right.
The last batch of pages went really fast, and then this batch (same length as the last) screeched to a halt. I had to remind myself again the goal at the moment is not a “perfect” draft. The goal is to clean it up enough that the next pass is less overwhelming, which means any given paragraph is allowed to be garbage if I can’t get my head around it right now. When there aren’t 200,000 other things clamoring for attention, that garbage paragraph might be heard whispering what it needs to get better. Until then, I’m wasting time trying to read its nonexistent lips.