Author's Note: Thanks for hanging in here on this looong journey! 😊 I started this novel almost six years ago now. 😲 Though to be fair, there were many months where I did no writing at all due to, you know, life. 😁
So what's next? Editing. Major editing. And cutting. This manuscript currently clocks in at 143,475 words. A typical Women's Fiction novel is no more than 110,000 words. Which means I need to cut over 30,000. Yikes!
One storyline will be the first to go: Denita the waitress. Originally she was going to show up again, but that fizzled out, and she doesn't factor into the future novels. So she and her dead granddaughter will have to go. 😢 I just have to figure out how that will work. I can have Jane already know Vivian Montgomery is dead and buried in the Prairie Creek cemetery. What I don't know is what sends the Marvel brothers away the first day Jane is painting. I still want Cadence and Genevieve to show up offering lunch. And I like having Prett be morose when he returns. Dilemmas, dilemmas. 😊
I will need to make sure Danny's speech is consistent. I will need to make sure everything else is consistent, too. LOL. Since I wrote this over such a long period of time, I forget what I wrote in earlier chapters. I might contradict myself or repeat things unnecessarily.
This is where I hope you, the reader, will help! What irked you or tripped you up? What plotlines/questions did I leave unresolved? (Several, but some are purposeful. I just want to make sure I wrap up ones that aren't so important.)
I will need to go through and delete many instances of "the latter." That phrase irks my husband no end. Even after he pointed it out to me, I still used it. LOL. I tried to tell him it's to avoid repeating a character's name in close succession, but he finds it annoying anyway. 😂
I'm sure there are many other words and phrases I repeat too often. Please point them out to me.
After I do my personal editing, I will pay for a professional edit. Then I will publish it on Amazon in both ebook and print form. At that time I will remove the story from Wattpad. (I may leave the first few chapters, but Kindle Unlimited will require it be removed except for a sample.)
Then I will start work on the sequel(s). More on those in a future post. Stay tuned. 😉
Good news! I have started on the prequel: Elly and the Road Less Traveled and it's posted right here on Wattpad! The link is in the comments.
--Lynne
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The Marvels of Prairie Creek
ChickLit***WATTPAD FEATURED Nov 2017*** Penniless, hungry, and stranded at a truck stop just before Christmas, Jane Johnson has few options. So when rescue comes in the form of three Kentucky hillbilly brothers--two of them mute--she reluctantly accepts...
