the end
And so yesterday, in the late-ish afternoon, I finished writing Godlight.
Again? you may ask.
Yes, again. See, last time I rushed the ending because I was feeling under the weather and finishing was one way I could get off the daily word-count hook. But when I went back and looked at it, I knew it was wrong. That was not the way things were supposed to end.
I tore off the last ten chapters, which as near as I could tell was where things started to fall apart. After that,iIt took me a long while to figure out how the story was supposed to end, and longer still to construct a thorough outline of events. When that outline was done, I realized the story was also done. Told.
Complete.
And thus, boring.
I have fiddled and tweaked and fleshed and breathed upon it for months, in between eyestrain headaches. (I worked entirely longhand because of them.) Yesterday I decided I would finish this impossible scene I'd hung up on for weeks come hell or high water, and when it was done I decided I could do one more, and then another.
They're short scenes, if they're truly scenes at all. They're actually just POV shifts in the climax.
By afternoon I had written 2744 words and my hand was cramping from holding the pencil, and I remembered I still need the epilogue. But ouch. I can do that tomorrow, I told myself, and turned to the outline of the epilogue, and realized that it's one of the sections I'd already completed at some point.
(The epilogue is optional. If someone wants to buy this tale, they can leave the epilogue on and set up a sequel if, or leave it off and the book stands alone.)
So. Written. But not finished.
What's left to do, is type all this long hand in--close to 20k words. For a fast typist, a quick job. Considering I'll probably have to fix things as I go, maybe not so quick for me.
Then comes the printing, the read-through, the outline (of what I actually wrote as opposed to what I planned to write, which are often two entirely different things), edits, the beta-ing (if I can find some willing volunteers), the synopsis, more edits based on the beta, and then submission to the five agents I chose during Grapemo.
Assuming they're still alive and in the business by the time I finish all this!
Somebody asked me how long I expect all this to take, and don't know how to answer that question.
Too long? Not long enough?
As long as it takes?
Yeah, I'll go with that one. Because Butt in Chair has never been a good system for me.
Again? you may ask.
Yes, again. See, last time I rushed the ending because I was feeling under the weather and finishing was one way I could get off the daily word-count hook. But when I went back and looked at it, I knew it was wrong. That was not the way things were supposed to end.
I tore off the last ten chapters, which as near as I could tell was where things started to fall apart. After that,iIt took me a long while to figure out how the story was supposed to end, and longer still to construct a thorough outline of events. When that outline was done, I realized the story was also done. Told.
Complete.
And thus, boring.
I have fiddled and tweaked and fleshed and breathed upon it for months, in between eyestrain headaches. (I worked entirely longhand because of them.) Yesterday I decided I would finish this impossible scene I'd hung up on for weeks come hell or high water, and when it was done I decided I could do one more, and then another.
They're short scenes, if they're truly scenes at all. They're actually just POV shifts in the climax.
By afternoon I had written 2744 words and my hand was cramping from holding the pencil, and I remembered I still need the epilogue. But ouch. I can do that tomorrow, I told myself, and turned to the outline of the epilogue, and realized that it's one of the sections I'd already completed at some point.
(The epilogue is optional. If someone wants to buy this tale, they can leave the epilogue on and set up a sequel if, or leave it off and the book stands alone.)
So. Written. But not finished.
What's left to do, is type all this long hand in--close to 20k words. For a fast typist, a quick job. Considering I'll probably have to fix things as I go, maybe not so quick for me.
Then comes the printing, the read-through, the outline (of what I actually wrote as opposed to what I planned to write, which are often two entirely different things), edits, the beta-ing (if I can find some willing volunteers), the synopsis, more edits based on the beta, and then submission to the five agents I chose during Grapemo.
Assuming they're still alive and in the business by the time I finish all this!
Somebody asked me how long I expect all this to take, and don't know how to answer that question.
Too long? Not long enough?
As long as it takes?
Yeah, I'll go with that one. Because Butt in Chair has never been a good system for me.