Leaky boat a.k.a Hole in the plot...

I'm about to starting editing my thesis novel for some suggestions from readers to round out the plot.

A story is never really done, is it?

I mean, even the books that were presented to and contracted by publishers.  The manuscripts that went through months and years of editing, finally got published and sold in their millions, even those manuscripts could be improved on, filled out, or streamlined a bit more...

As I've mentioned before, the most time consuming part of my writing is the thinking part that happens before my fingers even hit the keyboard.  The thinking part can take YEARS, literally years.  So, when I'm asked by my supervisor to add a plot element to round out the story or build suspense a bit more in a particular passage, it's not just a case of sitting down and writing.  Much thinking must occur first.

So, tonight I was thinking about something I will be writing in the next couple of hours, and that led to another  aspect of the plot that would or could be enhanced, and suddenly I found myself staring into a gaping black hole in the last few pages of the manuscript that no one seems to have noticed before!

You might think, well, if no one else has noticed it, then it's fine to let it go, but actually, I think the sentence here and para there that I'm planning on writing tonight will, in fact, highlight this black hole, so like I dentist I'm forced to get in there and fill it before it causes further decay!

Eeep!  Writing can be a bit like trying to keep an old boat afloat; just when you patch up one hole, another appears and the slowly water seeps in but the only vessel you have to bail water with is a tea cup, and it's just not enough - you need to get this boat on dry land before it sinks, and takes you down with it!