Well, I’m largely back to where I was before the unfortunate collapse due to a thread strip-out – the removal of 26 pages unbalanced a further 130, or so it seemed, so there was much scrambling and rewriting – anyway, all looks well now, though, actually it all looks a whole lot better, my “first marker” is back into the page 77, exactly where it was before, and the overall page count is 130, which not quite where it was, but close enough for me to feel back on track.

Throughout all this, I have been switching things around and stripping out surplus bits and bits needed in other places – which means that in the end a lot more than the 26 pages got pulled out. It’s hard to tell because many of them have gone back in or will go back in. Never mind.

I have sorted out the jumble in my working area, which should never have been there in the first place. I try to keep that area as clear as I can, but it happened to pivot around so many things “about to get going” it was hard to sort out how, when, what, why and in which order.

Some things have been shuffled along and put in place. Some bits I’ve zigzagged over a few times. This, now, is causing me to lose my place. It’s not quite like shuffling cards, but the analogy is good enough and the end result is the same. I’ve thoroughly disrupted the pattern and picture in my mind, so there’s nothing else for it but to go for another full read through so I can pick up the reins of all the threads and know which direction I should next move and what needs work and how to go about it.

This is not a delay. This is a natural course that must be taken after working backwards and forwards repeatedly until I don’t know which end is up and what’s in and what’s out.

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