.I’m wrapping up the draft of  Book 8 in my Bean to Bar Mysteries, Vanishing into the 100% Dark (aka the Japan book).  If you’re wondering from last time, I did name the calico cat Honda.  She’s super sweet.

I’m getting to the point in the project where I’m realizing that some of the scenes I have planned aren’t necessary.  While I usually do full outlines for my sci-fi and sometimes even short stories, I don’t tend to make a detailed outline for the mysteries, since the main structural points can’t vary that much in a mystery.  If I know who the suspects are, and which one did it and why, I’ll be able to pace introducing the suspects and the clues that seemingly lead to them, and then eliminate those suspects, all on the fly. 

But as I introduce the specifics of each suspect’s personality and backstory, and each element that raises a “what if” question, I keep a list of what I’ve left unanswered, and the implications of things I’ve introduced that could be explored.  As I create the draft, I incorporate these.  Sometimes I realize different points can be incorporated into the same scene.  And sometimes I realize ideas don’t need to be explored, because I’ve already got a scene that emotionally fills the same beat or the idea creates a substantial subplot that I don’t have time/space to explore.  

Often, I realize I can address a point where I want to share information with just a couple of lines of dialogue or a paragraph of narration in an existing scene.  It would actually be a waste of page space, and slow down the pacing of the overall story to include a whole scene with no pint except to impart that information.

Sometimes I can save that idea for the next book, especially if it deals with the recurring characters that people Felicity’s world.  Sometimes they just have to be axed.  Streamlining often makes for a tighter, more engaging read.  (A lesson I learned the hard way, when I had to take 30K out of a manuscript, at the request of an editor.)  You don’t have to keep everything — just make sure you keep the right things. 

How do you keep track of plot threads?  Do you find it difficult limiting the ideas you want to introduce?  Can you feel when pacing is off in your own projects? (Either rushing a scene, or dragging things out.)