Hmm. I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to spend a few days doing rough layouts and dialogue for the entire rest of Rita. I’m getting close to the end; I have a synopsis of the next eight chapters, which will take up about 48 pages total if I hew to about 64 pages per volume. Which I would really like to do.
I’m about done with the last page of the current chapter, and don’t have any more roughs to work up – I typically do them in groups of 3-5 pages. This would be a sustained effort that would make the next page take longer, but it might be worth it in how it’d make a lot of the rest of the work simpler, in a way. Plus I’d be able to start sllloooowowwwly filling in a couple of really insane pages planned for near the end of the book. And maybe try to nail the page count down to exactly the right size.
On the other hand… I just counted my estimated page counts for the rest of the story and am doing pretty good – I’m estimating 50 pages, plus the 18 pages I’ve done so far on book 3. Only 4p over target, not bad. Book 1 was 56p of story, 2 was 58p – add in about 8p of front and backmatter and volume 3 will clock in at about 76p all told. Which I think is a hell of a lot better than “the last book is twice the size of the rest combined”. If I find any fat to cut, I’ll do it, but this story’s already pretty lean.
Dug out my sketchbook roughs for the last volume, changed a lot of chapter numbers to match with the “BOOK 3 HAZ A CHAPTER ORDER” note in Evernote. Drawin’ time, for at least the next chapter or two, if not the whole story.