After three months of doing almost nothing on China Tour, self-enforced first because of holiday preparation and travel, then because of sickness, then because of busyness, then because of more travels, then because of after-travel busyness, tonight I once again picked it up and added words to it.

During the last three months I received comments from one of three beta readers who have seen it in its incomplete state. Well, actually two, for one woman’s husband gave me some general oral feedback. That woman said she would like to see more local references and culture added in, to give a better feel of being in the country. She and her husband have visited China, and been to some of the places mentioned in the book.

I figured that wouldn’t be too difficult to do, given the number of sources I have. And I’m not talking just about Internet sources. I’ve mentioned the trip diary before, which I’ve made good use of. And I think I mentioned the 1983 Fodor’s China, the tour book we used to plan the trip and then during it. Two other sources, in the house, that I haven’t tapped, I will get to this weekend. One is all the letters and postcards we sent home to relatives, which they kept, and which we now have.

The other is all the propaganda materials the Chinese kept giving to us. It seems that at every hotel we received attractive, magazine-type printed matter. I don’t remember too much about them. They have been packed away in a box for close to thirty years, and moved from Saudi to North Carolina to storage to Bella Vista to Bentonville and back to Bella Vista again. But I know right where they are: on a specific shelf in the basement, in a different place than the trip diary was. Friday night I’ll pull that out and see what’s in there, and if any of it can be of use to enhance the reader’s experience.

One other source I have are the tourist books we picked up in a few cities. I didn’t think of them till tonight; not sure why. Again, the point is to drop in short statements here and there to help the reader with the fictional dream, the suspension of reality, and feel like they are in the scene. That doesn’t take a lot of words, but coming up with the right words will be a challenge. I figure that will be part of the editing process.

So what did I get done tonight? The scene that is part of Plot Point 1, the inciting incident that causes the hero to take up the quest, had a serious flaw in it. Maybe not a flaw as much as a glaring omission. About two weeks ago, while going about my business at the office and making a casual observation, I realized this omission. It took me a while to ponder it and figure out how to correct the scene. That figured out a few days ago, I just needed to jump in and write.

But that jumping in a writing isn’t so easy when you haven’t been writing for a while. For several nights I reported on my Facebook author’s page that that would be the day when I’d fix that scene. But I didn’t.

Finally tonight I did. It took only twenty minutes or so to read the scene, figure out where the insertions should go, and write out the insertions in long hand. I won’t type them till this weekend.

Then, I took the rest of an hour to read more in the chapter and make a number of edits. None of it was major. Things like using “a bit” too often, if at all. Or using “immediately” three times in close proximity. Or failing to close quotes or use a period where needed. Things like that.

Work on the book will begin in earnest this weekend, and continue until done. I hope that will be just two weeks. I do have my income taxes to work on, but that should be easier than the last couple of years. My spreadsheets are already made, needing only any tweaking based on this year’s IRS forms. And all my forms and statements are in place.

Let the novel writing resume.