18 January 2008

The End Comes First?

So I've written the end of my novel. Which is all well and good, except I haven't written the part that comes before it yet. Strangely enough, I feel really good about this. I've been working on this manuscript for a little while, and it's been getting longer, and I didn't quite know exactly how it would end for a while. Then the other day, somewhere out of the blue, I decided what needed to happen, and how it needed to happen at the very end. So I sat in front of the computer and started typing away. It was only about 10 single-spaced pages that I wrote for the ending (I guess it'll be the last chapter? I don't think it would be an epilogue, but we'll see.) And as soon as it was done, it was like I was suddenly free to get going on the rest.

I've been a little stuck with it. Mostly doing some revising and tinkering with it lately, but I just started writing with a real flow again, now that I know exactly where it's going. I usually like for things to sort of 'finish themselves' when they're 'ready,' but writing the ending before I've actually finished seems to have worked for me this time. Sometimes knowing your limits is good. And it really shouldn't be long now before the rest comes together!

Then it's on to major revisions......*sigh* I knew it would happen eventually. Revising is my least favorite part (although I've been getting better at it) of writing. I tend to get really attached to what I've written, even if I know, deep down, that it's not the best I can do. But I'm still afraid to hit that delete button, in case I decide that I wanted that word, that paragraph, that page back. So I tend to copy and paste into a new document and revise there, so I still have the original copy. Which can get crazy when I have Novel1, Novel2, Novel2a or whatever saved on the computer. Oh well. Maybe I'll clean up my method someday. Just not today.

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