This, is huge.

I had a rough start, mostly because I was once again re-writing the opening scenes, but then the flow kicked in and it's going much better now. I am thrilled at how many more things are connecting together, making the story better, stronger than it was.

Ideally, this process is to include everything we ever made a note on that we still intend to change or add. I'm doing well with this, to a point. One of my great loves in reading is a story world that lives and breathes and envelops me. Unfortunately, I tend write very lean the first (or 17th) time around, following a plot carefully, but with only a skeleton of a story world for my readers' suspension of disbelief to trip over. Before continuing to the 'cosmetic surgery' of the final lessons, I plan to go back to Lesson 7 and make sure my scenes communicate the setting that I need them to, without choking the pace.

I am at the half-way point now of finishing my revision, intending to complete it this week. With scenes adjusted appropriately? We'll see.

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It is an intense few weeks of cutting, reworking, and adding to my physical manuscript (including cut-and-paste using real scissors and glue). The very last thing to do is typing in all the changes. I don't know how fast this process will go, but I am looking forward to the challenge, and completing it by my deadline.

All good wishes much appreciated.

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Lesson 15 involved playing solitaire with my scene cards, and looking at what that brought to the story. Even done randomly, amazing things were revealed that made a huge difference when I brought a front scene to the middle, or a middle scene to the front. I'm still a little leery about the commitment level, seeing as I've re-written the beginning of this thing about 15 times, but my beta-reader assures me that it's a strong intro, so I'm going to go with that. You have to start somewhere!

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Once again some 'scary' edits, things that I knew weren't quite right but didn't know how to deal with on my own, are no longer issues because I had tools and support to take care of it. It did take work, but I could both find and fix them. Wow.

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In Lesson 13 of How to Revise Your Novel the advice is to end your subplots satisfactorily either before or during the final climax, so the awesome ending lingers without watering it down with new characters and ideas.

I'm a fan of the denouement, and while I did find the right place to end (I think), there were a few too many things between the big climax and the satisfying finish. The end of your book sells your next book, so I had introduced a tantalizing new mystery right at the end. When it comes time to submit, I will include an epilogue instead. I have a few different ways to play it, and maybe present some of those to the potential buyer. I'd like the end to be strong enough for a stand-alone, but still convey that there's more to come.

It amazes me that the story is STILL getting better!

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The cumulative progress by the end of lesson 12 has left me excited about my story again! There were so many things that nagged and niggled in my mind, even after much effort revising on my own. I fixed a lot things before, but the remaining problems I just couldn't get a grip on. HTRYN has given me everything I wanted from the course now (and there's still more to go!). What was weak is now strong. Everything that bugged me and left me in tears of frustration I know I can fix and am going to fix. I am so thrilled that by the time I actually submit it, I am going to be HAPPY with this manuscript.

I'm so thankful for this course!

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My villain really needs work, and I've added a lot of significance to a minor character so he needs help too. I'm a little worried about potentially needing to make major adjustments to main characters, and I'm nervous about what exactly this is gonna take... but if the end result is a Good Book, the work is worth it!

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The Eureka! for the this lesson was realising that I was confusing 'theme' and 'subplot'. When I looked over my new scene cards and asked "What does Main Plot NEED in order to work", my two biggest subplots disappeared into it.

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Lesson 10 is likely to take a week at least again, but for now I appear to be back on schedule for finishing this puppy by the end of the year.

Once again, Go Me!

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