Though the table of changes that will accompany the manuscript back to the agent needs a quick pass, the edits for The Last Track are finished It’s been a long road to this point, one I never expected would take nearly four years. I have learned many lessons about writing as a craft by writing a novel, found my voice, and discovered the most effective approaches for me.

Here’s a short list of personal discoveries:

1) Short scenes—one to five pages in length best complement my style. The less acreage there for hiding, the more likely I will keep the ball rolling.

2) Almost every draft seems a lot closer to the mark immediately upon completion. Once the self-love affair wanes a bit, cracks in the narrative will show.

3) When I start hating a project because it’s dragging, it’s time for a break. Taking a step back might just mean pushing away from the keyboard for an hour, or in other cases it means working on another manuscript for a few weeks.

4) Once I realize and accept where I went wrong, it’s much easier to recognize similar dalliances in other writing projects or in the same story. And those foibles are in there. Somewhere. Much like a roach, for every gnarly insect a homeowner spots near the pantry, there are a hundred more slithering through the sheet rock.

5) Feedback is almost always positive.

6) There is a time and place for a professional proofreader: around the time the manuscript is 90 percent–or more–in the pocket. Otherwise the comments will take longer to read than the story.

Enough writing noise for one day. I gotta pack for Russia…