So, apparently, the secret to a phenomenal revision breakthrough is bacon jalapeno cheese. I’m pretty sure it’s not too good for me, but my revision? Never better. I found the thing I need to build on to, and it’s pretty solid, actually. It fits with the rest of the revision. And more than that… I like it. (almost as much as the bacon jalapeno cheese.)

A late lunch probably also helped. It got me past the breakroom social hour, and into solitude and reflection time. (Really, I had uninterrupted break time. Because of the magical cheese. I know that must be why.)

I have located my missing subplot. My missing characters.

A little bit of rebar here, a little bit of cantilevering there, and voila. Functional, appropriate length novel.

Maybe a little more elbow grease required for the assembly.

But I’ve hit the point in revision where I know where it’s going. What order it’s supposed to be in. What my stakes are.

So, this was my first big revision breakthrough. It’s the place where I got stuck and where I took a couple of days off. I just couldn’t figure out was supposed to come, next. There’s a part of this where I sit around and doodle out thoughts. It worked. Today, it actually worked.

What was the revision breakthrough? I realized that in order for Character A to behave in a certain way, Character B had to be dead. So, that’s what comes next. Character B dies a horrible death, and leaves Character A in charge. After that? Well, everything just started to flow from there.

Beyond that, I won’t share a lot of details. You don’t want me to spoiler my own book, do you? If you’re interested in my revision process, most of my revision groundwork came from Holly Lisle and her class, How to Revise a Novel.(Here’s an affiliate link, if you want your purchase to help keep me in jalapeno cheese. It doesn’t cost you any extra, but I get cheese money.)

If you just want to read some of my stories, I have a few linked here.