Chapters 15 to 29: Yet to be Rewritten
Chapter Fifteen
From this point on, despite my edits, I can’t talk about how much rewriting is involved. I’ve made the edits, but quite often in the first fourteen chapters, I second guessed myself, or made changes outside of what the red pen did.
This chapter has a surprise moment early on, before shifting its focus to character moments. It also leads directly into the next chapter, which is a little meatier.
Chapter Sixteen
Following from the previous chapter’s events, this ushers in revelations about various characters and their motives.
I’ll keep this one brief as it does include some major revelations as the book starts picking up steam, ready for the third act. But that is a little way away, still.
Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen
These two chapters share some common ground, but are more distinct from one another than most of my other groupings. Characters are left questioning a lot after sixteen’s revelations, and the plot moves forward in some violent ways.
Chapter eighteen is the longer of the two, as well as the more violent one. Neither chapter required a huge amount of edits, though I’m curious to see how much refining I’ll need to do.
Chapter Nineteen
As with the two previous chapters, I didn’t need too many major edits on this chapter. It’s a big, crazy chapter with some over the top action. There really isn’t a great deal more to say about it, but I do want to drop the chapter title: “Snack Time Really is Over, You Buttmunch!” It’s brilliant, I know, so I will just take this opportunity to remind you that it is © 2020-2021 W.A. Stanley.
Chapter Twenty
This is one of the book’s longer chapters, though it doesn’t sit among the longest. This chapter, unlike the rest, opens after some time has passed from the previous one. During my edits, it occurred to me that my introduction is not only slightly more than two printed pages, but it covers off some key information. While editing, I was wrestling with the best way to approach this, thinking I may need to add a new chapter.
Upon reflection in the time since this editing, I have determined that is most definitely what is needed. I’ll be removing this introduction and expanding it into its own chapter. This is the only change to the chapter structure that my second draft will see.
Outside of that substantial change, the edits are fairly simple, outside of new scenes that I’ll be adding. One, to cover off some material that was left out originally; the other, to see a character make it through something they shouldn’t have. Between these additions and adding a new chapter, the word count is going to be increasing.
Chapters Twenty-One, Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three
These three chapters are fairly closely linked, propelling the story forward. My edits included replacing a few paragraphs and adding a bit more connective tissue to them. I did replace a relatively large portion of the twenty-third chapter, uncomfortable with the humour. It wasn’t remotely funny (I even disliked it at the time of writing), and I had to double down on explaining aspects of the jokes. What I’ve replaced it with is shorter, sharper, and with any luck, at least vaguely humourous.
Terrible excuses of humour aside, these chapters also ramp up towards the climax of the second act, with some big moments, which continuously escalate.
Chapter Twenty-Four
At this stage, I’m a little uncomfortable with this chapter. It’s a strange one; possibly the strangest in the entire book. It flows well enough, but I’m concerned that one of the major things that happens in the chapter, which is supposed to be sweet (in an admittedly strange way), comes across as…gross. But in my infinite wisdom, I’ve kept it in. Let’s see if it makes it through the edits, and if so, subsequent drafts.
There was still a fair amount removed from the chapter, though more than being about this chapter itself, they were removed to keep continuity with other changes.
Chapters Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six
And so begineth (and then covereth a decent amount of) act three. These chapters escalate an ever-escalating situation. As the book moves towards its climax, I was surprised by how few changes I needed to make, whether it’s regarding the escalation, or certain character arcs and relationships that are reaching their crescendo.
Chapters Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight
Like any good fantasy book (though I’m yet to make the claim that this will be a good fantasy book), Till Death Do Us Party has an action-packed climax. These two chapters fill that role.
I’ve made slightly more edits to these two chapters than I did with twenty-six and twenty-seven, but still not as many as I did earlier in the book. Either my writing has improved as I’ve gone along, or I’m missing something. I’ll be certain to review these closely when I’m up to them in the second draft.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
And here we are, at the conclusion of this tale of woe: a fairly small chapter, and probably the one that required the least changes during the editing. All I can think of is that I had an extremely clear idea of how this was wrapping up, and all that was left was for me to type out the words. As with the two above chapters, though, I will make sure that as I redraft them, I will pay particular attention, making sure they read as awesomely as possible.
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