Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends celebrating today. If you aren’t writing, I completely understand why. This is a day when you can be thankful for the people who support you and the imagination you have to create new things.
Those are two things I try to be thankful for every day.
Day 22 Writing
I’m not sure the scenes I wrote yesterday will make the final cut. Or maybe, to more accurate, I’m not sure all of the material I wrote yesterday will make it. Still, it was important to write what I did as it helped to move the story along in my mind. Sometimes knowing the entire story, including backstory and conversations that may not be critical but still need to happen out of sight are important to be aware of as the author.
One of the bigger benefits I got out of it all was, I have a direction for the big climactic scene and I know what I want to do for the final wrap-up of the book.
I also became very aware of how little time is left in the month. Now is the time I really need to start wrapping things up. That means, no more new material (unless it is important connective tissue).
How I’m feeling about the story
I’ve talked about how this has been a rollercoaster journey. I’ve had many highs and several lows. As it turns out, most of the lows were more a factor of a rough day outside of my writing time than the story itself. Yes, there are parts of the story that I know are weaker than others. There are also many strong pieces.
I am also aware of (small) holes that need to be filled. Some are ensuring the transitions are working properly, some are adding motivation to characters and a couple are tiny – adding a sentence or two to a scene to make everything work together better.
That’s what editing is for. To improve on the weak parts of the story, fill the holes and make the entire book better. I am still confident that will happen.
Starting to wrap up
This story has to foreshadow the next (and last) book in the series. That means I have to ensure the conflict for the final book is setup. Happily, there have been several building blocks set in the story that will naturally give me that foreshadowing. My job now is to keep building the story in a natural way and finish it properly.
Endings can be hard.
