WiP Wednesdays 12/2

Thanksgiving week didn't prove very fruitful.  There was simply too much going on to get in any sort of dedicated writing time.  But once the holiday was over and Black Friday ended, the time opened up wide.

Last week I reported having finished the Chapter from Hades.  I also reported a nasty flare-up of the Thing.  Well, I've cured the flare-up and am quite happy to announce that I've moved on quite swimmingly.

It was touch and go there for a while.  I struggled for a couple of days to find where I wanted to be in the chapter I was writing next.  (I'm a linear writer.  I have to write in chapter order.  That's not to say that each chapter follows a linear timeline.)  Then I found my footing.  Lightning flashed, the writing heavens opened up, and the words began to flow.

In the past week (well, less than with the holiday in there) I've written approximately 4,234 words.  That constitutes one more chapter in the checklist.  I now have 16 chapters written.  My current outline only calls for two more and an epilogue, but I think the story will require at least two chapters on top of that.  We'll see how it all unfolds.

Now, if I could just get my brain to cooperate as I've hit a roadblock yet again.  I think that as I move rapidly toward the finish line, a place I've never been to with this novel, part of me is reluctant to do so.  I think it's why I slump every time I finish a chapter.  I've held this story inside me for so long that I don't want to let it go.  Once I can type "The End" it's no longer inside me.  It's out there in the universe, waiting for the planets to align and the constellations to look down in approval.

In a way, when I type "The End" the story is no longer just mine.

And my subconscious can't yet handle that fact.