Rewriting a book from scratch is a strange thing. When I first started redoing The Name and the Key, I had the book close by to reference. I reused some of the original beginning of the book, and then put it away, going based off of my memory of general plot points. Almost everything is generally brand new.

However, at the rate that I’m going, I’m hitting the plot points really fast. In the original book I’d be on page 266, very, very close to the ending of the book. I’m roughly hitting the same scene at page 168. And the plot is breezing on by.

I contacted my editor in a panic. I asked what would be an appropriate word count because I had a feeling I’d be coming up short. Son of the Siren is slightly over 86,000 words but tops out at 303 pages. It’s considered a small book. And with a couple exceptions, the pacing of that novel is pretty fast.

I like books that move quickly. The question is, does the plot or characterization suffer for it?

And the industry expects a lot of writing for fantasy books, even YA fantasy. But my editor assured me that my estimated 65,000 – 70,000 words (a wild guess on my part) was acceptable. But…that makes for a pretty slim book.

And as the title of this post says, I’m feeling the heat. I recalculated my word counts and writing schedule. I just couldn’t bring myself to write 2500 words only on my days off–it was like pulling teeth. But if I write daily, even on workdays, I only have to write 1750 words. This is far more manageable to me.

So far, I have done this. But tomorrow, when I teach, will be the real test. Because I get up at 5am and am on the road by 6am, I usually feel exhausted on the ride home, and nap almost immediately upon arrival. While I don’t think I can stop the naps, I think I can muster up the energy to get back on the computer to write after I sleep. Usually it doesn’t work out, but if I plan on making my October 1 deadline, I have to do it this way.

I feel a lot of pressure to get this deadline right. First off, I have a beta reader chosen and waiting for me. They’ll probably take a month to read the book, and then I’ll have about fifteen to twenty days to edit based on their notes. Then I turn the book in to my publisher. I cannot turn a rough draft in to my publisher. I need eyes on my work.

I recognize there are issues in this draft, and scenes with the demon Aineiron in particular don’t feel right, but I can’t go back and fix them right now–there’s no time.

All I can do is try my best to wrap this all up. And if you want to encourage me, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent!