Sometimes it pay to listen to your own advice (see image below.) Despite the fact that it would entail an immense amount of work, I went back to the beginning of Part III, which I’d been so relieved to finish several weeks ago. I was going awry in my final two chapters because of subtle faults within these previous chapters (numbers 34 – 38). Working on these chapters yet again has paid off: my character had a major dilemma which he couldn’t resolve. He wasn’t actually supposed to resolve it: it has no resolution. It’s not possible for there to be a resolution – but I found one. Right out the blue! I LOVE it when this happens – it’s the imagination overdrive. You’re cruising along, having survived all the bumps and potholes, and then you discover another gear. Driving metaphors notwithstanding (I can’t drive, by the way), this changes everything. The blurriness of the story has suddenly cleared. My character’s motivation is finally as sharp as the proverbial blade.
If this wasn’t enough, further revelations were waiting for me later in the day. I went for my late afternoon walk (to breath in those rich rush hour fumes) and wasn’t enjoying myself much: my foot was hurting again and the plane tree fluffies made my eyes itch. I don’t want to think about pain, I thought, I want to think about my novel. So I complied and the brand new scene I had earlier realised needed to be added into the novel suddenly exploded into my head. It was a scene that satisfied all the specs that I had so far failed to attain: it was surreal; it tied up ALL the loose ends; it showed rather than explain what had happened; it removed the “dumb heroine” aspect from the final chapters ....... the list goes on! Part III will be one chapter longer and the final two chapters will be cut down to an atmospheric, image-laden, no-talk-zone one chapter – which is exactly what I wanted.
Suddenly I’ve got my ending. Suddenly it’s powerful. It’s magical. It’s got a wow-factor. Suddenly the novel ends the way want it to end, not with a domestically dull whimper and a bad joke but a simplicity that captures the mood of the novel and transports you beyond.
Blimey. Now I just have to write all this.
If this wasn’t enough, further revelations were waiting for me later in the day. I went for my late afternoon walk (to breath in those rich rush hour fumes) and wasn’t enjoying myself much: my foot was hurting again and the plane tree fluffies made my eyes itch. I don’t want to think about pain, I thought, I want to think about my novel. So I complied and the brand new scene I had earlier realised needed to be added into the novel suddenly exploded into my head. It was a scene that satisfied all the specs that I had so far failed to attain: it was surreal; it tied up ALL the loose ends; it showed rather than explain what had happened; it removed the “dumb heroine” aspect from the final chapters ....... the list goes on! Part III will be one chapter longer and the final two chapters will be cut down to an atmospheric, image-laden, no-talk-zone one chapter – which is exactly what I wanted.
Suddenly I’ve got my ending. Suddenly it’s powerful. It’s magical. It’s got a wow-factor. Suddenly the novel ends the way want it to end, not with a domestically dull whimper and a bad joke but a simplicity that captures the mood of the novel and transports you beyond.
Blimey. Now I just have to write all this.
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