Today was Presidents’ day, and I had the day off from the day job. I told myself that I was going to live today as if I was a full-time writer.

Of course, then life happened.

I did get up and go write in the coffee shop this morning. I did write more tonight. I did finish chapter two today, and so I can start chapter three tomorrow.

But there were also life things, like shopping and grocery shopping and making dinner and doing yet another load of laundry and goofing off a little and. . .I think that I need to take a whole week off the day job to really figure out what it means to be a full-time writer. Because I certainly didn’t spend the entire day writing. Though I did spend time thinking about the writing, which is as important.

As for the rewrite, the change in word count (an additional 1500 words) doesn’t indicate the effort. I figure at least half, if not more, of the words are new (and the chapter is about 6000 words now.)

One of the good things about the break, as it were — I had thought I’d finished chapter two while I was in the coffee shop. The last scene was a bit awkward, but I was sure it would only take a little straightening out.

Then, while doing all those other things, I finally figured out what was wrong with chapter two and what I needed to do to fix it.

This is why rewrites always take me so long. I need time to figure out what’s broken. I need time to address it. I can’t just run at it like I can with writing.

The good news is that I already have a really good idea of what’s wrong with chapter three — namely, it starts in the wrong place and summarizes what went on before. I need to have scenes with that stuff happening. This chapter is one of the shortest — 3900 words — and there’s no reason why it should be. Important stuff happens that needs to be on the damn page.

At least with this chapter I understand why I shied away — the main character is losing a parent figure. It’s hard stuff to deal with. There’s more emotional honestly in chapter three, but it’s all aftermath. I’m glad I have the time to think about it, and fix it.