There are flashing lights before my eyes as I contemplate the disintegration of my manuscript The Mediterranean Source in its final edit. This is definitely not a bad thing though.

It’s going to lose four chapters, a few more dead characters just to spice things up, and accidents and tragedies are going to be seriously needed. The base storyline will still stay the same, but this time I will not be listening to my early alpha-reader’s opinions of the manuscript, I will be listening to my gut. And I’m going to listen to my critique partner’s gut, because it seems to be in sync with my own opinions of the book.

The other thing is that I have left this manuscript far too long. I love the story, and I love the characters, and I even love to hate some of the characters. But now it is time to make some sort of move with it, ramp up the storyline, and set the whole thing on fire.

As my crit partner said to me this morning – “Supercharge your plot. You want a GREAT novel that packs a punch, and I will keep poking you with a stick until you get it.” Critique partners like this one are far and few between, and I count my lucky stars that I have her.

So, since I’m stuck with writing the ending of Talent Uprising at the moment, I’m going to hack this apart, and then piece it back together again. It’s going to be slow going as I rebuild it from the ground up.

Now all I have to do is cut the manuscript into Scrivener, and make a start. Wish me luck!