Closing in on the final-final-final (& one more final?) 5.2010--> another final!

Dearest Authoress,

How strange to have you write this now as I'm reading my final-final-final (and maybe one more final) edit. I have an unusual confidence in this work. Of course, that won't mean that it gets published, but there is an intangible sense that this novel is different and far superior from the rest. So, if we are sharing the same feeling, then yes.

This manuscript has a strangely Zen-like rightness that I've never felt before. The corrections that I'm making are so deep into the craft, places that I've never known existed before. I'm asking, "do these three main characters have their own distinct voice?" "Is there really enough white space in this chapter?" "This tiny (read as paragraph) drags, what can I change to make it excellent?" "How can I punch up the humor (or tension or suspense etc) in this scene?" etc.

Perhaps more important is that there are no questions about continuity, no questions about if I have the perfect level between giving a clue--not too much, not too little. This, of course, is thanks to a wonderful editor and beta readers. I had an entire writing group helping me on one complicated, short description. We worked on it for a full hour and a half! One sentence!

Is this a publishable work--for the first time, 'yes, absolutely, without question.' What an amazing place to be! A new platform that I didn't even know existed before now! So high five to you Authoress. I got to this level in part through comments of knowledgeable people who did crits. This feeling is a wonderful place to be. Published or not, I've earned my writing wings at last.

Meg, writer hoping to be author

Changes. Stroking out the babies. Fighting with tech. Mind meandering.

Hi all, I had an epiphany on the way to re-reading my YA. The forward flash remains as an always can be added or removed, but Chapter 1 (meant to be mundane and normal by this pig headed writer) was completely changed. I received some feedback that they didn't get pulled into the story until they were in the airplane and the parents go missing. I pulled out only the essential items as to plot, character etc from Chapter 1 and inserted them into the next two chapters. I cut a great many of my 'babies', which I think was right. Those babies weren't earning their spot in carrying forward plot and enriching the characters. (But I liked the pelican shaped principle---NO -- cut.)

I think, first, second, and third blush with it that I now have a starting chapter that will pull the reader in, if I chose to yank the forward flash. I added some sibling sparing to up interest level and highlight their relationship more.

As I worked those chapters it felt so perfect, too perfect. So then I started worrying, 'Was I lying to myself, because I wanted the new format?' So it's off to my un-emotional editor for her opinions.

Onward!

Tuesday feels like Saturday. Arghh!

Why does my biological clock sometimes gets time so wrong. It feels like a Friday. It honestly does. Dang it. What does that mean for the week following? Disaster? Disappointment? Victory?

Or does it just mean that I'm so looking forward to a three day weekend? Yeah for Labor Day.

Unless.... my body thinks it's a work day come Saturday. Ah well, life and time rolls on in either case.