Writing update

I had a good writing day yesterday and finally wrote another draft of the third (and final) chapter of my novelette, For the Love of Trees. I still want to do another round of polishing before I send it off to TNEO, but I think I've got most of what I need in there. I was tempted to add even more, reintroduce a minor character who would be able to shed some light on Dryad behavior to the protagonist. But I decided it would make the story too denouement-heavy. I have to fight the need to tie up every single loose end to make sure the reader won't miss anything.I did manage to avoid that to an extent in this story by purposefully leaving a few loose ends and unknowns at the end. The main thing I added was an argument the protagonist has with his father that shatters some illusions. I still want to play up the Dryad's loneliness in chapter 1 and have her tell what happened to the other Dryads from her point of view, at least in brief. I'm not sure the pacing is right. Really, I think pacing is something I have the most trouble with as a writer. I am sure the critiquers at TNEO will point out lots of other things that need fixing that I haven't even thought of.The novelette is about 13,000 words and 60 pages now. The climactic scene ends on p. 52, which means I have about 8 pages of denouement. Hmm, I suppose for a 60 page story that's not too bad. It seems an awkward length, but I think if anything, it will likely get slightly longer in a post-TNEO draft. I've pretty much given up on trying to make a short story out of it.My novel group is critiquing chapter 2 today. I've made lots of changes due to their suggestions about a previous draft.