Race to Finish the Novel: Days #2 and #3

DAY #2 (Written Wednesday morning when I was still sane)
The second day of writing was not as successful as the first. I woke up late, then I received the call about the job offer, and then there was a freaking earthquake. My mind was kind of scattered, and though I enjoy writing, it still takes a lot of focus to sit down and pound out a chapter. I only wrote about 1,000 words yesterday. I did have some wiggle room, but now I need to write two chapters in two days.

It struck me yesterday that I’m now in uncharted territory. I’ve written a lot of fiction over the years. I have binders of handwritten pages to prove it, and that’s saying nothing of everything on my computer. But, I have never finished a novel. In most ways, writing the last chapters of a story isn’t much different than writing any other part of the story. There is, however, the difference that you no longer have any room to think, “oh, I’ll just wrap that up later.” You have to say everything you want to say about a story line, because there is no later. It seems that whether I comment on a story line in the final chapters or not is a testament to its importance, which means there’s the temptation to comment on every story line. But, I’m fighting that temptation, because I don’t want a final chapter that amounts to a montage of resolutions. That would be very untrue to the story and to real life, which I’m trying to represent.

DAY #3 (Written Wednesday night when I was something else)
I feel almost crazy right now. I’ve written all day, yet I feel like I didn’t get anywhere. I did accomplish the bare minimum, though, and that should be enough to finish on Thursday as planned. The writing got pretty lean there near the end of the chapter, and I’ll have to add description later when I revise. I try to write as completely as possible, because I find it much more difficult to change things later, especially in academic writing when there’s an argument to structure. But, the novel is going to require pretty extensive revision, and there’s no way around that. It’s just too hard to keep everything going smoothly for so many pages. At this point, I’m actually looking forward to the revising process. It will be a change of pace, at least.

Though at first the thought of writing this post (or anything ever again) made me want to cry, I still think I’ll be able to finish before the end of the month (today! if you’re reading this on Thursday). I may feel loony right now, but on the whole, I’m still really enjoying writing.