This is The End!!
After months of slogging away endlessly, I'm within a whisker of finishing off the current edit of Book Two.
I thought I had a strange way of operating., but I've since come across a few writers who work the same way as myself. I have to write at least three or four drafts until I get the plot shaped in the correct fashion. In the first draft, I usually get a half or two thirds of the way through then skim through the rest almost in short hand. In the second draft, the short hand section gets shorter. I get to the end, and I write the end, but somehow, it just doesn't seem right.
Then comes the third draft, which is the one I've just completed. I often get within a whisker of the end, then stall, and then.... The engine splutters into life, and I suddenly see my way through the problem. I've known how it ends, but not where to end, or from whose viewpoint.
I realised last night that I'd reached this point. I still had work to do on Fire and Sword regarding publicity and the like, so I hadn't had much opportunity to puzzle out how to end Book 2. And I don't think that has been a bad thing, because this morning, as I strolled through my Building of the Day at work, a conversation started up in my head and I knew, I just knew, what characters were required to lead up to the final scene.
I'll be writing it tonight, I think. And then it will be time for the fourth and hopefully the final draft. I've let the plot grow and blossom, I've given it a robust hacking with the garden shears. Now just one last read-through is required with a good dose of 'Rewrite for Atmosphere' added for good measure as and when required.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? But when you've got 177,000 words to play with, even that will take a wee bit of time!!
Incidentally, keep checking my Wordpress blog out at www.louiseturner.co.uk as I'm beginning to post more of my medieval ruminations over there. But don't worry - I think I'll be back to more regular blogging on LJ too, in the not-too-distant future!
I thought I had a strange way of operating., but I've since come across a few writers who work the same way as myself. I have to write at least three or four drafts until I get the plot shaped in the correct fashion. In the first draft, I usually get a half or two thirds of the way through then skim through the rest almost in short hand. In the second draft, the short hand section gets shorter. I get to the end, and I write the end, but somehow, it just doesn't seem right.
Then comes the third draft, which is the one I've just completed. I often get within a whisker of the end, then stall, and then.... The engine splutters into life, and I suddenly see my way through the problem. I've known how it ends, but not where to end, or from whose viewpoint.
I realised last night that I'd reached this point. I still had work to do on Fire and Sword regarding publicity and the like, so I hadn't had much opportunity to puzzle out how to end Book 2. And I don't think that has been a bad thing, because this morning, as I strolled through my Building of the Day at work, a conversation started up in my head and I knew, I just knew, what characters were required to lead up to the final scene.
I'll be writing it tonight, I think. And then it will be time for the fourth and hopefully the final draft. I've let the plot grow and blossom, I've given it a robust hacking with the garden shears. Now just one last read-through is required with a good dose of 'Rewrite for Atmosphere' added for good measure as and when required.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? But when you've got 177,000 words to play with, even that will take a wee bit of time!!
Incidentally, keep checking my Wordpress blog out at www.louiseturner.co.uk as I'm beginning to post more of my medieval ruminations over there. But don't worry - I think I'll be back to more regular blogging on LJ too, in the not-too-distant future!