`Last time I did an update on my writing odyssey, with special reference to Biome NE47: Daughters of Eden, I was at 60k+ words, or two-thirds of the way through to the standard 90k word novel. That was less than a month ago!
So I’ve written nearly 30k in the interval, since I’m now at 88.5k and looking seriously at the last six scenes, which will be somewhere near 6k words. Maybe a few more, since my next scene, a salient one, might be a bit more than a thousand words. I hope I can get that one done tomorrow = Saturday because then I’ll only have a single working week to go, and what a milestone that will be.
I’ve also written a kind of essay Appendix, a further set of acknowledgements, and a presentation of some ten ‘Questions for a Book Club discussion.’ I liked doing the last one, a lot. Possibly because I’d like to think that the presentation of these discussion stimulators encapsulates some of the things that I’m trying to do, as a writer. Just in case my beta readers miss the point, I guess.
I do seem to find that there’s a point, in the end-game of my novel work, when I just have to do more, get this scene and then that one done. It’s like an inexorable force compelling me onward. It’s never like that in the middle. No no no, that part’s a grind, and it doesn’t feel like it’ll ever get anywhere. I wonder if there’s just so much dross in the middle, or if I really am laying the groundwork for the resolution, some of which I’m at now. Well, almost. I’m peering at it, the dénouement, and it’s like an enticing bauble to grasp if I can.
I write these things down, now, to encourage my wayward and unconvinced self for the next time, when I’m feeling down about that project, and the daily grind isn’t going well. This is the exciting bit, the fruition of those hard days.
Keep on working, keep on putting those words down daily. The end will come if you persevere.
Biome NE47 