I’ve been of absolutely no use for two months on the book (or anything else, really) and Bob has been a champ about it all, but now I’ve got my head space back and I’m on the final draft (before betas and more editing) of Arresting Anna. Yeah, not the best title, but it’s the best we can do.

So we already had the book divided into four acts, and I am now breaking it down to tighten it and pick up some of the threads I’d dropped. Bob finished his draft while I was picking things out of the air, but as he pointed out, it needed YEC. So I broke it into scene sequences because I’d realized that things were happening out of order. So after the crisis turning point, the team in the book regrouped with 1. A Plan. Then they had to survive 2. A Party, during which major things happen that blow up the plan. Which they deal with in 3. The Plan Goes Wrong. Followed by 4. Plan Two, and ending with 5. The Final Scene for the Action Plot and the Final Scene for the Romance Plot.

It’s so much easier to edit a scene sequence than take on an entire act or god forbid an entire book, especially when you title the sequences so you see the structure of the sequence. Then on to the first act, which is solid except I wrote long so I have some cutting to do on my scenes. Bob’s are all fine, which is irritating but he carried the can for us for two months, so I have to give credit where it’s due. The second and third acts, aka the mess in the middle, I will get to after the first and last acts.

It feels so good to be fully back at work. My whiteboard isn’t here yet, but I found white board paper online that is working out just fine, so all is well. Or at least there’s a final draft well under way.

Nothing but good times ahead. Fingers cross, good books, too.