It's been a while since my last blog but time seems to pass extremely quickly when there's a deadline looming. It's a self-imposed deadline but still one that I want to meet.

My final edit of Nothing Ventured has been taking ages, even though I've only been making minor changes here and there. Unfortunately I reached Chapter 10 and decided this part needed a complete overhaul. Still, it's got to be right. I guess it's better to be a week behind rather than on time but with something you're not happy with.

One of my main characters, Diana, is facing up to a fear in the scene. She hates things flying around her head and so friend, Lou, takes her to a Butterfly House to conquer her fear. The humour was coming from an eight year old, know-it-all boy in the scene who found it highly amusing that a 'big, old thing like Diana' could be scared of a butterfly. There wasn't enough humour so I added in his mother who was taking him off for a dentist's appointment where she hoped she'd be able to get a bit of a filling too from the rather dishy dentist.

I kept reading this chapter over and over but something wasn't right and I didn't know what. Eventually I began adding more conversation in with the young boy, Marcus, but the things he started saying were far too risqué for an eight year old. I really needed an innocent adult instead; and that's when a lightbulb went off in my head. I already had two rather innocent-sounding characters who had enjoyed themselves on a coach trip in Driven to Distraction. Seeing as both books are set in the same fictional county and the events of Nothing Ventured take place a year later; it wasn't hard to bring back Josie and Suze.

They wanted to return to the county for another holiday but as the coach company has now folded they decided to hire themselves a car instead (A Toyota Clitoris, Josie thinks it's called).
I've just written in their scene and although it will need a few tweaks, it already sounds far better than what I had before. What a relief!

It's funny how scenes can sometimes develop. I had to make several minor changes to Chapter 10 before I could see what the major change needed to be. I just hope that I'm still happy with the remaining fourteen chapters. Only time will tell.