Analyzing Mode

I'm analyzing EVER-AFTER yesterday and today, looking over my edit letter and examining the manuscript as I go through it page by page and drop the line edits in. (Line edits are small questions, typos, and grammar issues that my editor found in her read through.  This is not a copy-edit, where a professional copy editor comes in and does a through search, but it does catch a lot of them.)

So even though I'm officially out of plotting mode, I'm still using a lot of the same techniques as I try to blend the story I have with the story you guys will see.  As usual, my editor pointed out where I got lazy.  (I knew it, but I didn't know how to fix it.  Still don't.)  I left two things I didn't like in there, and yes, she pointed those out, too, so I know I was on the right track when I was thinking about rewriting them with a new spin.  A third thing I wasn't sure about she liked a lot, so that stays as it is.  (Yay!)  I might be changing a character to someone else or pulling him completely if I think Rachel needs to work alone until she remembers that she works best in a team environment.  (Just a few chapters)  And how am I going to get her back in the stables for a really neat idea that I came up with?

I'm late in posting this morning because I had a rough night trying to fix my lazy spot which lead into a dream that had nothing to do with my characters but was cool enough to roll over and try to recapture.  I still don't have a clue how I'm going to fix it, so I'll be working with pencil and paper for about twenty minutes this morning before finishing up with the line edits.  Right now, my choices are a flash back (which I hate with a passion and deem more lazy than what I've got) or a dream sequence (which doesn't feel right.)  I could rip the first third all to hell, and I probably will, but as I always say, half the time spent in edits seems to be screwing my courage up to the sticking point in order to do the ugly thing I need to do.

I still have a day or two to think about it.  Line edits might take me up to Wednesday night.  By then, I'd better know what I'm doing, or it's going to get ugly.  Really ugly.