The sixth one

Weather: summer rain
Listening to: Deepspace (aka. my husband www.deepspacehome.com)

I fixed it! The second half of the beginning should have actually been the first third of the middle. Do you see?!?!?!

All I had to do was moderate the pace. Slot in some extra scenes, flesh out some summaries. Now I have added 7000 words to the MS and my middle-not-beginning problem is fixed. I would love to have the time to explain to you what the difference between beginning and middle is (as they have quite different functions) but, alas, it is after 9pm and if I want to get up at 5 to write I'd better go to bed 15 mins ago. See, I even get into my pjs frantically.

I sat in a very nice cafe (okay, it was Gossips at Toowong) last Thursday and nutted out the next big chunk of scenes. Quite pleased with myself. I was rushing (can't think why) and hadn't given a significant subplot (with great narrative potential) its full weight. Now, fleshed out, it gives me lots of material to work with. I have decided that if I can hit 100 000 words by Dec 31, I can finish the book. If I can't make that goal, then I will phone my agent on Jan 1st and ask for more time. I am not good at asking for more time.

Will report back in due course.

Yours
FW