I found two this week in Book 1, toward the end. I’m crushed, except really I’m just fixing it and seeing how I can smooth out those bumps.

You’re wondering how I know I made two mistakes? One’s easy, I had a character interacting with the crew and then said she didn’t come out of her quarters until the third day. OOPS! That seems easily fixed, except that I had my characters focusing on the wrong thing during the two days before that.

Also, I had carefully mapped out my stars and the time it would take to visit each destination in this book, and I flipped the two at the end, which gave them a lot longer to focus on the wrong thing- and not enough time to struggle home by the deadline.

It’s funnier because I had a friend read (listen in her car) an earlier version and she didn’t catch it, either, which just goes to remind me why we need more sets of eyes (and often a cooling-off period) to create an amazing book.

As I’m changing these bits, I’m thinking a lot about what I know will happen as well as what the characters are experiencing at the time. I’m reminded of all the role-playing games where players don’t get to see what the DM has going on behind the screen – surprises happen despite our best efforts. I’m hoping that final piece comes together this week. I know I’m close but it’s not close enough!