A Finish Line Does Exist

I'm going to stop apologizing for disappearing. We're going to pretend that I really am a spy, and that yet another secret mission came up - goodness! these secret missions! they really take it out of you! - and I was unable to log in to Blogger through the super-secret computer system, yes? I mean, it's made for hacking into top-secret computers...not posting blogs.

And while we're pretending, can we just pretend my book is finished? Because it's not.

But it's getting better.

Ah, the Editing Mantra. It's not finished, but it's most definitely getting better. I'm beginning to wonder just how long it can be getting better. So far, it seems to want to break a record. But I had some encouragement in the form of an author interview from Lola's blog at Sharp Pen/Dull Sword. She was interviewing Elliot Grace about his book South of Charm. And something he said stood out:

There was a beta reader whose suggestion of a major change resulted in a delay of six months. I began to wonder if in fact a finish line actually existed. Happy to report that it did ;)

Now, I'm not going to blame beta-reader Shelley for my current renovation of the second half of my book. It's not her fault, and she never suggested any such thing. But I will thank her for her comments, because without them I wouldn't have gone after the things that were...niggling me. Things I knew I should fix but didn't want to fix. You know - denial.

And now I'm doing some re-writes. I'm making things worse for the MC, bringing out the emotional conflict, upping the physical conflict, and generally just making it all-round better. It makes me happy...

...when I'm not pulling out my hair in frustration, of course. But I'm going to take Elliot Grace's word for it - A FINISH LINE DOES EXIST.

What about you? Any recent returns to the drawing board?