I’m so close to the finish line.
I’ve been working on this novel for the past four-plus years. Have several drafts of thirty-nine chapters, edited, revised, almost finalized. If I can just finish writing Chapter 40, the final chapter.
Everytime I sit down with my fancy keyboard that lights up when I plug it in and the printed out manuscript and stare at it as if it’ll inspire me to write the last chapter.
I used to be able to do a rough draft of one chapter in one sitting less than three hours long. Edit and revise it in half an hour max.
So why is this last chapter taking so damn long to finish?
Because once it’s done, it’s done, isn’t it?
I don’t want to stop writing this story. I’ve fallen in love with it. With it’s characters and the fictional small town I created. And I want to live it out for as long as I can.
But just as much as every story can’t start at the begining, every novel can’t end at the end.
I took a fiction writing class this semester and one of the first things we learned about was Media Res. It’s a technique mostly used with short stories where the writing usually begins in the middle after most of the plots already taken place. And most often, you’re left with an ambiguous ending as well.
But this technique can be applied to novels as well. Actually, no story truly starts at the start and ends at the end does it? No one starts writing from when the universe first began and no one will be around to write about the end.
All stories start in Media Res. And one story may start where another ends.
I’ve come this close. Just one more chapter, just five to ten more pages.
And I’m not gonna quit now!
Today’s the day. I am going to finish this damn thing. And very soon you’re gonna see a post that it’s being published and me asking you to buy a copy and support an upcoming writer.
It’s time…
