SUMMARY OF EDITS FOR CHAPTERS THIRTEEN AND FOURTEEN

At the end of Chapter Twelve I came up with a more dramatic way for the MC to be pulled in a new direction at the midpoint in the story. As a result chapters thirteen and fourteen needed to be reworked.

Following my usual practice, I copied and pasted the whole of Chapter Thirteen into a document I use for discarded text. Although most was redundant as far as this chapter was concerned, it contained some material I would be able to reuse later on.

All of the material in Chapter Fourteen was still relevant to this part of the story but the first half needed to be reworked.

I began the revision by writing a continuation of the final scene from Chapter Twelve. This included material from the beginning of Chapter Fourteen which was reworked to fit in. I followed with some new material which convinces the MC to change direction. To complete Chapter Thirteen I used the remainder of Chapter Fourteen.

The result of my editing cut my chapter count by one at this stage but with some new material I had planned further down the line the balance will be restored.

The third quarter of the story (between the Recommitment Scene and the Crises) needs to accomplish the following:

·           The energy of the story needs to increase by building tension and excitement.

·           It needs to show how the MC’s flaw is stopping her achieving her goal.

·           It is where the MC rediscovers who she is and loses her innocence.

·           It shows what the MC needs to learn in order to prevail at the end.

·           It is where the MC becomes the hero of her own story.

Whilst the first draft achieved some of these aims it was particularly weak regarding the final point. Although I knew what I needed to accomplish before I set out to write it, I had lost my way. Perhaps, I should have made a checklist and kept looking at it as I wrote.