Just finished off week three and I’m really impressed by how it’s going. Everything is flowing and I could just keep writing through the end if I let myself. I just don’t have that much time.
So here’s where I’m at right now and what my goals are for the last week of work. Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll try to help.
Monday, December 6 – Not a half-bad start to the week. I got 7630 words done, moving from chapter 17 through to the middle of chapter 19. Current totals for the book are 78k and 294 pages. I’ll cross 300 pages tomorrow with no problem.
Tuesday, December 7 – This was a really hard day. It started out fine, I’d wound up the day before close to my 80k goal and once I passed that, I increased it to hitting 85k for the day. That wasn’t a problem, it only took 7209 words to get me through the end of chapter 20 and a grand total of 321 pages overall. That wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was writing the most emotionally draining scene in the entire book. I just couldn’t write anymore after I typed those words. If it doesn’t emotionally impact you though, your readers won’t care, I’m just happy that it’s behind me.
Wednesday, December 8 – I admit I went a little crazy today. I came out of the emotional roller coaster yesterday, having to deal with the aftermath and then, I finally worked out some of the final questions that I had about the finale of the series. That sent me into a frenzy and I wound up writing 8138 words for the day and two complete chapters. That also brought me to 351 pages overall, which, earlier in the morning, I’d thought that it would be nice to hit 350 pages but I didn’t think that I would. That gets me to 93,426 words overall and I don’t think it’ll be a problem getting to 100k tomorrow. The end is getting closer and I know, more clearly than ever, all of the last minute details. Life is good.
Thursday, December 9 – I actually ran into trouble today when, about 3k in, I realized that I had a massive heist sequence that I needed to write and I couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work in my head. I tried for a while, in fact, I did get down the setup but I just need more time to make it work the way I want. Therefore, as much as I hate to do things like this, I jumped to the next chapter and started working on what happens thereafter. I’m going to take some time, maybe Friday, maybe over the weekend, to really get the ideas down pat and then I’ll come back to it. Therefore, while I didn’t get as much done today as I’d wanted, I still finished with over 100K and 6723 words for the day. It gets me to 376 pages and if I have to add another chapter following the now unfinished 23, I don’t see where that will be a problem. It all depends on how much I need to do to make the heist section work.
Friday, December 10 – The end of the third week and I think I made a good showing. My word count for the day was 6505, which isn’t as much as I might have done but it did get me pretty far past my goal of 105k and I did spend some time thinking about what I needed to do in chapter 23 and I think I’ve figured most of it out. I’ll spend the weekend working out the details and I’ll hopefully hit it running on Monday. There was another emotional scene that I got past, a good one this time, and I’m about to run into a big action sequence so I’ll leave that for Monday. Right now, I’m sitting at two more chapters to finish next week, plus the part I have to go back and work on and that’ll be the book. Tuesday or Wednesday ought to wrap it up. My totals for the week are 36,205 words and almost 132 pages. That’s not half-bad.
Honestly, the ease at which this is flowing is kind of amazing, at least if we don’t count that one part. I know what has to happen, I’m just trying to work out all of the details so it doesn’t sound unrealistic. There are two big fights coming up and then, we conclude, wrap everything up and throw out a couple of surprises in the end that I think readers will like. That will be the end of the time that I spend with these characters and while that saddens me a little at the moment, I’ll get over it. Every finished series means saying goodbye. Good thing I keep coming up with new characters for the future.
It’s why I really like writing these closed-ended series. You come up with these characters, get really invested in them and their stories, you sell it to your readers, wrap up the plots and then watch them sail off into the sunset while you go on to do it all over again. It’s a little sad, I suppose, although they’re still there in my head, I can still step into their shoes whenever I want, I just don’t want to keep dragging these things out. The story is over. It’s time to move on. There are a never-ending number of stories to be told. This one has been on my list for years now. The next one I’m going to do has been too. I can’t wait.
See you all next week for the finale. I am going to write a wrap-up post for 2021 but it probably won’t show up until the end of January or so, after I edit this book so stay tuned for that.
