Aha! Moment

I had an "Aha!" moment tonight. You know, a bright idea, a "Why-didn't-I-think-of-this-before?" moment.

I have known for awhile that this book was getting longer and longer the more I wrote. No, it was not because I was actually putting the story on paper-Oops! I mean the laptop. It was because my adding characters and "fleshing out" the plot kept adding paragraphs and even whole chapters. It was really getting too long to be a successful young adult novel.

While working through my synopsis tonight, a realized that the book would be more manageable if I end it at the conclusion of Section Four instead of dragging it out another two sections. An effective ending just popped into my head. Fast on its heels, came a smoothly flowing "jumping off" scene for Book Two, which is tentatively named Aurora Recover.

This will leave me with a book approximately 300 to 350 printed pages in length. Much better.

So, am I trashing Sections Five and Six? Absolutely not! They are Sections Two and Four of Aurora Recover. The timeline (calendar) and synopsis for Aurora Rescue has already been adjusted and the new timeline and synopsis for Aurora Recover has been started.

The best part is this: instead of being a little over halfway finished with this novel, I am four-fifths of the way completed.