So begins the journal of Revisionmania '04.

Point one of my zillion-point revision plan, done! It's 10:40 a.m., and I've just written some new material near the opening of the novel which should begin to ratchet up the tension a lot earlier, without slowing things down too much, I hope. I think it's interesting stuff, anyway. Now to get more coffee, and dive back in. I made a good playlist on iTunes to get me in the mood to write in this world again. Music so far this morning has included K's Choice, Dar Williams, Jimmy Eat World, the Decemberists, Dido, the Old 97s, Stephen Lynch, Nada Surf, and the one song by Third Eye Blind that I like.

Point zillion of the revision plan, done! Though I haven't done any of the intervening points yet. I felt like revising the end, so I did. In the original I went for a rather silly comeuppance sort of ending, and it's been changed to be more realistic, and give due respect to one of the novel's major villains (who was a pretty damned thin character in the first draft -- I knew how stone-cold bad she was, but somehow none of that stuff made it into the novel as originally written, which is a danger when you have a major villain who's offstage until the penultimate scene of the novel. She appears earlier, now, and gets more personality).

A break for lunch, and to pick up Heather's contact lenses, and some coffee, and some cat food, and a DVD for Heather to watch from her sickcouch. Then perhaps some small amount of writing-avoidance behavior of a useful sort -- doing dishes, say -- and then back into work.

Oh, yawn. Very tired. After some more hours of work, I've taken care of two other major revision points. Now only one major point remains ("major" means I have to write new scenes or substantially revamp old ones), and then a lot of little things (like cutting deadwood, making things consistent, fixing small problems, continuity errors, dropping in bits of foreshadowing, etc.). I should finish everything tomorrow. I think I'm pretty much done for tonight (as of 8:30 p.m.).