Life is not a dress rehearsal.
Life should be embraced like a lover.
And she did not want him to think her quite mad, only a little unique, only containing within her just that measure of the unexpected sufficient to make her irreplaceable.
Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted "first readers".
I can inhabit any character in a way that is difficult to do successfully in a contemporary novel.
In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.