Milestone!

Tonight, I finished chapter 30 in my book. Since I plan on 34-36 chapters (depending on how naturally the final plot points come together), I am on the home stretch.

In fact, Chapter 31 starts the denouement.


I am finding writing the ending is much easier than I anticipated. It's certainly much easier than figuring out how the book was actually going to end! I have read many authors blogs that mention they have an ending in mind and the hard part is getting the characters from where they start to all come together to make it to that ending. They liken it to scheduling a surprise party at a certain time and then making sure all the guests are ready and in place in time for the birthday boy to walk in.

To illustrate this point, the author of one of the greatest epic fantasies of all time wrote the ending of his series years before it was finished. In fact, he died before it was finished! Another author wrote the last three books of the series based on his notes that all led up to that final scene.

I wish mine had gone that way (except for the dying before its done part). I realize that this is partly an issue with me being a novice writer. If I was a Published Author, I would probably have blocked out my story arc and had at least the skeleton of my finale already written. Alas, I am still, currently, just Aspiring Author and have been working on this stuff after Loving Wife and my son have gone to bed for several years. So my ending has morphed at least a half dozen times as I have plodded towards it. It has changed location, characters, plot point reveals, and more all in just the last couple of months.

It is something like driving down the road and seeing something in the distance and thinking to yourself "Is that a cow?" You know its not a cow. What would a cow be doing out in the middle of nowhere along this road you are travelling?* But that is the first thing that pops into your mind when you see that thing down the road. It must be a cow. As you continue to drive, the cow becomes bigger, clearer, easier to see, and most certainly not a cow. What is it?

Well, we all have our own cows down the road. I can't tell you what my cow turned out to be, because that would spoil the fun of reading the book. What I can tell you is that it definitely wasn't a cow. Which I am thankful for, since I really know nothing about cows and writing about a cow would have made it much more difficult to write the ending. :)


*Please note that I have lived in either Las Vegas or the Los Angeles area for the past eight years, so this metaphor makes sense. To anyone reading from the midwest, your cow may, in fact, be a cow.