I took a valuable side path as well.
1. I took some serious time to do 'writing craft' research on 'plot climax' from as many sources as I had on hand and available through the internet. As a result, I came to understand that my climax was actually a couple chapters prior to where I thought it was. Okay, you're scratching your head going, 'how the f****** hell can Meg not know where the blasted plot climax is after all that time!?!" Turns out, I have one climax that births another that follows immediately after that one. The first is a physical plot climax followed by a final massive mental/emotional climax puzzle to figure out. I'd erroneously figured that the mental section was the massive plot climax...
Decided after research that I had to make the physical climax even more satisfying for the reader and make it the top of my upside down plot chart. Then the mental section is an odd twist that extends that height, or might even be considered to slip down and then get pushed over the top again before resolving the book.
Might seem minor, but it put a whole new spin on how much I had to put into the physical plot climax scene...
Then 2. I've been listening to a "Great Sentence" MFA lecture. It's a complicated, but fascinating class on sentence structures from cumulative sentences, suspensive sentences, etc. From that reading, I ripped apart Carrie Vaughn's short story from Dark and Stormy Knights to critique when and where she used them in her work to heighten tension, build suspense, etc and also a Meg Rosoff book for the same detail. Both use cumulative sentences in different but fascinating ways.
Both research side roads have paid off in huge dividends when I look at the overall effectiveness of my WiP.
3. An assignment on 'order', not flashback, but conscious reveal of backstory in book real time woven into the work has made three beautiful counterpoints of jewelled nuggets that simply make the emotion zing off the pages. Thank you, BK Loren and the Univ of IA writer's festival!
Above meant more revision, a couple new scenes. I'm so pleased with how this is working out. I can't wait to get the final work out there.
And yes, I'm writing most mornings for an hour or more, and several evenings for an hour. This weekend I hope to resolve those issues, and begin a final zen-reading of the entire work, breath deep, print off for a visual/tactile read through, re-print and mail. Thank goodness I wasn't given a time table, but I can't wait to get it back, and then send out to the agent who requested to read the re-write. Also, I've got a few agents I've held in the hopper who might wish to read it too.
Yep, I'm really going to get off my procrastinating a** this time... Re-reading this it makes it sound like my head has imploded, but really I'm very, very proud of this work--from the standpoint of what I've learned and applied, as well as from quality writing standpoint.
