Jaycee Woods

After formatting Ch 3 “Good Touch” of Fixing Barbora, I was shocked that I thought that I might drop the whole chapter from the story.

It isn’t that it is bad draft writing, but that the whole story might be better without it. The character development will be tighter, a later scene more emotionally impactful, and the central conflict in the story will be clearer. Because it is one of my early long works, I think that it is more susceptible to such a major revision.

Meanwhile, this chapter is generic enough that it could be reused with other characters either to supplement another story or as a standalone short story. As a standalone, it looks at the relationship between honesty, trust, emotional intimacy, and physical intimacy in building a bond. While it has good bones, major editing is needed to make the scene effective.

Note: Barbora isn’t a typo but a popular female name in Czechia. To have unique character names, I created a list of popular names in countries around the world, which I could use if a character does not demand a more particular name for herself. The male lead is currently named Ahmed, a popular Egyptian name. Arbitrary diversity when I am not creative enough to think of a unique character name with my oeuvre.