I’m at a bad place in it. I’m at the place where I’ve realized almost everything I need to add in the revision to make the end I foresee work. While some authors go back and revise when they reach that point, I… can’t do that. If i stop now I’ll never finish it. So instead I spend a week… outlining, researching and goofing off. I clearly remember this stage for Citadel of the Sky– I trudged my way through a scene I later totally removed. While on the one hand it’s nice to be able to so clearly map this to that stage because if it continues to map, I have a lot of fun stuff coming up as soon as I finish climbing this hill. On the other hand, feeling so close to Citadel makes me feel guilty about not finishing Citadel 2– I’d been stuck in a similar place on Citadel 2 when I tossed it aside, although Citadel 2 was even more of a mess than this story. I don’t want to abandon Citadel’s full story forever, but reworking it seems like an enormous task. Oh well… at least my current project is a stand-alone novel. Well… 90% stand-alone. Sequel-ready but stand-alone.
Robin can now move forward, by inching like a soldier. He might crawl before the family reunion. He also turns the pages of books, has learned to hold out his arms when he wants to be picked up, has expressed a preference for one person over another, and has tantrums when a favored toy is taken away (usually something he shouldn’t have). I am loving these first stabs at learned communication. He still loves toys that make noise, also.