I wrote 576 new words on Alpha Female and I’ve set the end in motion. However, I left out something really important, so it’ll need to be added in next time. Hopefully tomorrow.
What I’m grappling with is the Pack structure. They have a mating rite where the males compete to mate with the Alpha Female (Natasha, the main female character). They have rules. Delia, the antagonist, broke the rules. So technically, she should be dealt with and wasn’t. Well, except for a death threat. 😉 I dunno. I guess there are more things to consider. My beta reader brought the whole Delia thing to light — Luke, the male lead and Natasha’s love interest, needs to address Delia trying to kill Natasha. She should, technically, die, as was implied in one of the earlier drafts. I need to definitely tie this up before the novella ends.
And then there’s the climax. I’m basically keeping what I had, except for the circumstances that lead to it, if that makes sense. Luke needs to go rabid on her, and she needs to [spoiler alert!] heal him. [end spoiler alert!]. I really, really like that. It’s different than what I’d planned, but as I was writing the current draft, I went with it. I think it works well.
I think it might be trying to tie all the loose ends together in one shot that’s killing me. Maybe I need to do it one by one, not all at once. I always feel like my brain is going to explode. Or maybe I could make notes to refer to later about these things. I’m still learning what works and what doesn’t. And I feel a bit like I’m climbing through quicksand. However, if I can get this done within the next few weeks, I could get it back to my beta reader and maybe, just maybe, be able to submit it by the end of the year, which is the goal.
Yeah.
Weaver of Words 