I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Wow, I finally finished "The Corinthian Rules" manuscript! I wrote the last word around 1 AM February 1st. I finished the line edits to the manuscript yesterday. I will lay it down for a week or so before doing a more general review, checking for character/plot development pacing and consistency. What a sense of accomplishment! While doing the line edits, I noticed how much my writing has improved even during the 2 months while I wrote the manuscript. It really helped that I had plotted everything out and done a scene outline. I could just look at my scene spreadsheet and go on to the next scene, or if I had a brainstorm and added or deleted things, I could easily alter the spreadsheet. I noticed that it also made it easier to look at pacing when I had the scene spreadsheet. I could see at a glance the goals and actions, or reactions and decisions. I love Excel! Also while doing the line edits, I sometimes ran into snags, like a scene I wanted to rewrite because it sounded st...