So in the end, the characters decided they were not very fond of finishing the draft under a charade after all.
So instead one of them, K, recapped all that we’ve now decided really did happen in those chapters. With L, my protag, making asides in her thoughts, knowing full well that as protag, I could hear them and she needn’t speak aloud.
And then they all agreed we’d just try pressing forward as if all those previous events had happened.
Which is something new for me–I’ve always pressed forward in exploratory drafts, knowing most things would change but reaching an ending based on what I’d already written.
I’m curious just how this will or won’t work. But the only way to find out, of course, is to go with it.