I did work on w-f-h today, and also worked on my own stuff. When I pulled up my own stuff, I was stricken with a strong urge to try to tidy up the first section where it dwindles off, where I lose track of what I'm doing and where the story's going. The urge was like that feeling you sometimes get (me more rarely than most) where you have to have something around you in order before you can proceed, like your car cleaned out or a list made or your desk organized.

I was afraid trying to tidy up would not only fail, but lead me to clueless confusion and frustration. But--surprisingly--I was able to move a couple of things around, and then I tried to sharpen a few bits. Then I printed out and read the ms from the beginning to page 56, and lo and behold, it makes sense. It's perhaps a little slow in the unfolding, but I wasn't bored and I didn't get confused. I was even able to see some threads from later that I need to pull in, and I saw how I was undercutting myself by not letting one of those threads build properly with clear differences in how the MC perceives things as the story progresses. That was nice.

I'm not sure it's so terrible to be a little slow in the unfolding, anyway, with the speed at which this can be read. Page 56 for this book will be like page 14 for a regular novel. I'm going to say it's okay for the ms to be that way, for now.