It's slow - well, today it has been quite surprisingly rapid, but generally, it's slow.
However, a solid day at it, and I can see the light. The monkey on my back is showing signs of moving. It's not gone yet, but things are improving. My problem has been that I know part 2 is uneven and poorly structured, and I haven't had the willpower to do anything about it. Well, this afternoon, I sat down, put on the Last Night of the Proms from the summer, and started work on it.
It's not easy; much needs to come out, but I really think it's working. In the course of the afternoon, I have radically reshaped the first chunk of Part 2, and done the painful bit - ruthlessly editing some of my favourite parts, so that the story can flow without repeating much of what has already been said.
I've just added things up - I've taken 11% of the existing text out, which is more or less what the books say should happen when you rewrite, and much to my surprise, I really like how it feels now. I'm perhaps a third of the way through rewriting part 2, but it feels right; it has a balance and a flow which has never been there, and my fear that we don't get to know Anne well enough turns out to be baseless; in fact, by trimming some things, I think she becomes a more believable person; a little less eccentric, and more likely to do the things she does.
More tomorrow? Bring it on.
Rewritten word count: 41,757. Down from 46,408. This is a good thing.