First Comments from my MFA Advisor

When I saw the email from my MFA advisor with the subject, "your submission," my heart started to beat faster. I stared at the email for a few minutes before opening it, and then stared at her short note for a while before daring to open the attachment. I am *hoping* that my advisor isn't just "nice", but her comments were very positive--much more positive than her comments on the submission I handed in before the residency, so it seems that I did learn something.

I need some clarification as to what she expects out of this revision (ie, how much do I need to change for it to count as a new submission?), but here's what I think I need to do at this point:

• Add more of a crisis point. I think I can do this by taking into account some of my mentor's other suggestions, including:

*Create a better balance between the two plots: Harold and Susan's problems with her husband. I can do this by clueing the reader in to the husband problems much earlier on than I do now, and by introducing the idea of a deadline to figure out her marriage earlier.

* Bring the father into the story more.

*Develop all the secondary characters more.