Well, the show is over, the house is approaching reasonable (notwithstanding frozen pipes and a roof leak) and I find myself with occasional breathing room. It’s time to write again.
The question is, what? My original plan was to submit the revisions I made during Nanowrimo to a ‘first reader’ willing to give feedback.  While I’m delighted with the improvements that were made (I like the opening SO much better now!), I’m also much more aware of the weak bits. I fixed some of them, others resisted my efforts. It seems silly to submit when I already know at least some of what is going to come back. I don’t mean to be perfectionistic, just trying to avoid the premature launch of work I’m not satisfied with yet.
So what am I going to do instead?
Well, I took a closer look at the course outline for Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways. It is very in depth, and may well be premature for my writing level, but it’s the sort of thing I’d be happy to drown in if I couldn’t manage to stay afloat.  See, as I was revising Gift of the Ancients, several times I could tell something was wrong but not exactly what. And if you don’t know what the problem is, you can’t fix it. It looks like the diagnostic tools I need (plus a whole lot more!) are in this course.
Honestly I’m a little at a loss right now for what Gift needs. I may still send it to beta readers for their feedback, but I believe the course is the next step for me. I will work on a new story in it, and at the end have a new array of weapons with which to defeat story deficiencies in my existing work. Working smarter just seems like a good idea.