Uh, oh. Problems.

Up to Chapter 14.

I have finally run into some problems. I read the last chapter to Linda and she said, "Wait, isn't this supposed to be happening in the morning?"

Damn. The scene was written -- has to be written -- to take place at night.

So I have to take two characters and figure out what to do with them for a day. This actually turns out to be a good thing, because I need to prepare them for something that happens later. There are two ways to do that. Either an explanatory paragraph, or an actual scene/chapter. I'm incline toward the latter if I can figure something out. But a solvable problem

Then woke up realizing that I had another problem. I have the boat in trouble. Why don't they call in the coast guard? So the solution is that they are out of cellphone range or in a cellphone dead zone (what do they call those?). But wouldn't a commercial fishing boat have a satellite phone or some other ship to shore communications?

There's a solution, even if it is just the character begging off. "Well, it broke and I didn't have the money to fix it and I'm never out of sight of shore anyway."

Both of those are minor, fixable problems. (though it was kind of neat I got more than halfway before I ran into them).

The bigger problem is that a storyline has been introduced that I really, really like -- but which I have a feeling might be problematic for some readers.

It's a challenge. Maybe beyond my skills. but the story went there and it intrigues me so I'm trying to pull it off.

Over the last few books I've verged off in directions I liked but which I knew might be a problem. I've decided to do what I like, even so. I mean, I am very aware that I need to please the reader.

The choice seems to come down to this. Take out the problematic material and it becomes a "competent" book, but no more.

Leave it in, and it has more of a chance of either becoming a "good" book or a "bad" book.

I'm pretty sure I can write a competent book. I want to try to write good books, even at the danger of fucking it up.