A Breakthrough on a Final Climax

I had a breakthrough on my Work-in-Progress the day before yesterday. My Work-in-Progress is the third book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series. The manuscript has been drafted, and I've been submitting chapters to my critique group, performing edits before and after each submittal.

I am due to submit the chapter containing the final climax tonight. I had been dissatisfied with it, however, and knew it needed fixing. The stakes needed to be raised, and I needed to "make things worse" for my heroine. I had to give her a bigger test that she could pass and prove that she is worthy of the title "heroine."

As the time approached for that climax scene to be shared with my critique group, ideas on how to fix it stewed in my brain. First came the idea on how to spin the situation more out of control and put a life in danger. Then I had to figure out how Claire was going to save the day!

That idea came a couple of days before the rewrite. Finally, I had a free day with no appointments, and I sat down to edit that scene, vowing to stay off the Internet until it was done. Eight hours and eight new pages of text (plus many rewritten pages) later, I was done.

The scene now has a lot more tension and conflict. I'm pretty pleased with the result. I hope my critique group will be, too!