First I want to say that I'm grateful to those who have read and so far commented on "The Masked Avenger" (MA). It's great to have a place share work in progress and get ideas for improvement. So, thank you!
I'd like your opinion on something. I'm re-thinking the whole "Lavinia should have a chaperone" thing. VirginiaR made a valid point about this in one of her posts. I had considered a chaperone way back when I began this fic and I remembered that she was going to be Lavinia's aunt, Tante Mathilde. :-) This lady is Lavinia's father's eldest, only surviving sister. However, the poor soul did not survive my early drafts. I won't drag you through all that went into that decision (I can hear the sighs of relief from here!) but let's just say she was decidedly de trop! Which, I suppose, shows that she was good at her job. <g>
But now, 15 years later, I'm actually thinking of ways to make Tante Mathilde work for me. It will mean some major re-writing of certain parts of the story, and she may even cause my plot to veer off into as yet unseen little side trails. I'm sure you've known characters who do that to your writing as well. She doesn't need to be in each and every scene, but her presence will be felt and will affect my other main characters even when we don't see her.
So, my fellow writers, do I:
1. stop posting MA while I do my re-writes, edit the parts I've already posted, and then pick up posting again once I've got Tante in where she needs to go, OR-
2. go ahead and continue posting the story as I have it now to see if other recommendations pop up, while I do my re-writes, and then see if I can get a beta reader who's willing to re-read the whole thing to help me catch any final boo-boos, OR-
3. some other option I haven't thought of?
What have you done? What's best for our readers? Any thoughts will be much appreciated.
Gratefully ...
