After a few days away from my time travel novel, Not Expecting This, I suddenly knew what was missing. I’d left out a scene that needed to come in the early section of the story. I’d been feeling like things were happening too quickly and I wasn’t developing relationships enough before the main events started happening. By going back to Chapter Six and adding this scene, suddenly I was thoroughly back into the story and eager to write.

What was missing was the accidental first meeting of my protagonist, Bailey Blackwood, and a young gold miner from England, and the development of their relationship. Originally, they didn’t meet until three chapters later, followed immediately by the meeting of Bailey and another young male. Potential love triangle?

Now, with this earlier meeting, there’s more intrigue, especially since Bailey and the miner meet late at night out in the woods when Bailey is supposed to be asleep in the marshal’s cabin. The next morning, some miners discover a body in a hard rock mine, and both Bailey and the young man are suspects in the murder.

I won’t go into more detail, because I’m still developing the story and I don’t want to give away too much. The book is a mystery, you know. But I wanted to give a glimpse of how writers work on their stories. It takes time to work out all the details, the pacing, the main plot, and the subplots.