I've been trying to write again.

I think "trying" is the operative word here.

Right now there are chapters I'm more or less happy with and there are some I tilt my head at.  The tilty-heady ones need re-writing, and re-writing kind of sucks.  (But so do those chapters.)

I'm struggling a bit with tone, because I don't like being serious.  Anytime there's a serious part of the story I want it to be lighter.  I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with that, except that it's hard to make things like torture funny rather than gruesome.

I mean, I know it's been done.  Doesn't make it not-hard.

Also, my book is too long.  I think Act 1 is the length of a short novel.  There may be portions that could get chopped out without hurting the overall story, and certainly I don't want to J. K. Rowling myself by adding weird and inconsequential stuff.  Still ... you know, it becomes your baby.  And you don't cut pieces off of your baby just because it's too big.  (Otherwise you go to jail.)