Tuesday 5th October 2021 

I had a major revelation today. 

As any of you who write might be aware, stories are strange.  You can sit down and do the most detailed of outlines.  You can do character bios for all your primary and secondary characters.  And yet, there comes a moment in your story where your character is supposed to turn left… but instead they turn right. 

Why this happens, you never know.  We use the phrase like ‘the characters take a life of their own’ but in truth it’s something you’ve subconsciously mined about the character through your writing that makes you know they’d never turn right. 

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can identify why they would make that different decision, and then dive back into what you’ve already written to subtly change the character; like a time traveller going back in time trying to avert some disaster or other. 

My characters do develop as I write.  One of my secondary characters started very much as a Brienne of Tarth type figure, became more like Boomer from Prisoner in Cell Block H, and only today had some character developments that I’m still figuring out. 

However, my plot largely stays on track.  I always give myself some wiggle room, and in that, a lot of the secondary story emerges, but I will go back and fix the character development if I ever have a case where a primary character wants to turn right instead of left. 

Compared to a lot of my stories, this novel I’m writing got plotted out pretty quick.  Even so, I had a very strong idea of the story.  As I’ve said, characters have developed and secondary stories have emerged, but I’ve very much stayed on track with the plot. 

It’s a big story, an epic fantasy with a lot of characters.  Some I already know I need to go back and do some work, but there’s been no big surprises… until today. 

Because it’s epic fantasy… it’s big.  Because it has a lot of characters, it’s big.  I think in some areas I’ve overwritten, examining the same scene from 3 different character’s perspectives when in truth I think I can get away with 1.  But I also think that a couple of secondary characters aren’t really developed until late in the story and I need to go back and add scenes to give them more of a character arc. 

Either way, I wasn’t too surprised, when this story went from 100k to 130k to 150k and I’d still really not got into the third act. 

I am useless at predicting novel length.  I’ve tried to be smart about it, even going so far as knowing my general session length and how sessions impact chapter length.  But still up until today the finished first draft could have ended up 170k or 220k.  Or more.  I’ve given up trying to work it out. 

But as I was writing I realised something. 

Most of the third act is another novel.  Sure it continues the story and it develops the characters further but those developments aren’t core to what the book is about. 

Instead, I realised that this scene is the climax, and all the cool things I’d planned for the end of the third act in a completely different scene, belong here. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m slow to decide on any plot changes.  I need to sit and think on them.  If anything, I take way too long to decide.  But I knew right away. 

This is the climatic scene. 

And with that, I’m suddenly writing the end of the book. 

Of course I asked myself if I was getting bored of the story or characters and as a result was trying to end it prematurely, but I’m not.  I was fully prepared to go the distance.  Heck, I was even having fun. 

But this scene is strong by making it the end, the character arcs get nicely rounded off.  It feels like the end of a book. 

Now, I still have to write a number of action scenes.  And then there’s a lot of aftermath.  At this stage, it honestly feels like the end of Lord of the Rings, the number of endings I need to write.  But whether I’m 5000 or 25000 words from finishing, the end is very much in sight. 

I wrote over 5000 words today, and most on The Accursed, so instead of wondering if I could possibly get this novel done in the next month or two,  it could be as soon as this week. 

It’s still very much a shock.  Whilst I’ve been thinking about the next book I want to write, I’m nowhere near ready to outline.  This first draft is a mess and will need a lot of cleaning up when I revisit it, but I’d like to have the gap of another first draft on an unrelated novel so I can come at it with fresh eyes. 

I’m not ready for this thing to end. 

My face is very much – “But the baby’s not due for another 4 months” 

I’m excited though.  This novel has been a slog, and whilst it’s not done yet, the end has definitely been easier than the start.  I just dread the thought of editing it, and I really do pity future me. 

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