As of today I’ve officially completed edits on the first ten chapters of my manuscript. It’s the next three that are going to be tricky.

The climax of act one doesn’t so much need edits, as it does basically need to be scrapped and rewritten.

So that’s the next 3-4 chapters I’ll be working on this week.

I’ve had so many great lightbulb moments the last few days. I feel like I better understand my backstory. It’s just that now certain things have to be revealed, and I’m not 100% sure how that happens.

So I asked the cards.

Well, I asked Google, and then I asked the cards (where do you find new spreads? Because I’ve been mostly relying on a few witches I follow and then running an image search for “writer tarot” or whatever type of spread I’m looking for that day. ).

So this one is via @denisedyoungbooks:

1) The story in its current state
The King of Pentacles

2) What’s working?
The King of Swords

3) What needs to be improved?
The Queen of Cups

4) The path forward
Five of Swords

5) The story’s place in my creative journey
The Empress

Ok, first of all, can we talk about how powerful this spread is? Look at all that royalty! And ending on the major arcana!

The King of Pentacles is all about worldly success, so hopefully that means the story, in its current state, is good. Or at least marketable. Try to shut down imposter syndrome and believe all the readers who’ve told me they liked it.

The King of Swords is about intellectual power and authority, so probably my structure works, and the logic problems have mostly been fixed.

The Queen of Cups is nurturing and compassionate. This is a “feelings” suit, so the cards are probably calling me out on missing some emotional beats in the story (I’ve heard that before…)

Five of Swords is conflict, and don’t I always get this one when I’m stuck? It’s time for a dramatic confrontation.

The Empress is the ultimate mother. This story is my first to make it to novel-length publication. It’s my newest baby. This card brings a positive energy of abundance and creativity. A strong sense of encouragement.