The long day of writing, Part 2

2:05: I went to bed fairly confident in my ability to finish my novel today.  Especially since today is actually likely to be very quiet, unless someone decides they want to watch the Super Bowl.  Oddly enough it looks like no one will.  At least, no one seems interested in watching the whole game.  The game is an hour and a half away and I don't think I've even heard anyone ask to keep the television free.

The end of Hengist generates an almost magnetic repulsion for me.  It's pretty remarkable.  It's fear, I think: fear of no longer being able to say, "I'll fix that in the next revision," or "Of course it will be better when I send it out."  But I need to be done, both because I've been on this story too long and because finishing stories is what writers do.

First order of business today is quick streamlining of my heroine's remaining scenes, which should segue into the working the last dozen unedited pages.  My denouements are always too short to begin with, so that will need to expand.

My final to-do list also includes going back to my one big expodump and making the final decision as to whether it can work as dialogue, or if I need to make it more narrative.  Then, finally, I need to finalize the chapter breaks, and possibly name the chapters.

2:28: I just noticed how the changes I made to my heroine's scene last night completely shift the subtext in her next scene.  It's a change for the better, I think--a move toward complexity.  It's too late for me to worry that the emotional arcs I introduce won't be fully resolved in the course of the novel.  That was intentional in my original vision.

3:32: It is coming very well now.  I am re-reading the last few pages now, which I normally expect to be a painful experience, but so far I'm finding my own writing at least tolerable.  It's occurring to me that I may actually have made a deadline prediction for myself that won't make a liar of me.

4:17: Almost... done...  Mere paragraphs are left.  The point of view for my ending is pulled very far back, from close third-person to detached omniscience.  I hope that that gives the sense of the story passing into history, or at the very least a sense of assuredness that the immediate tension has well and truly resolved.

4:30: Got sidetracked looking up the meanings of flowers, but ultimately decided to leave foliage out of the scene.  I wonder how the game's going.  Maybe when I'm done I'll check it out.

4:44: Just finished the last page.  Now, to check something in the very beginning, and then to see about that expodump.

5:32: I've been alone since about 2, and that's been useful for me.  I am just going over that one bit now, and while it's a bit long and talky, I think it would be longer and more slack if I tried to embellish it.

5:45: That's done.  All the places I've marked off for one last look have been addressed.  Can it really be over except for the chapter names?  At any rate I think I'm due a break, and maybe some dinner.

6:38: So I didn't take a break, or have dinner.  Or I did take a break, but it didn't involve standing up.  I spent the time on and off deciding on chapter breaks, which I just finished.  I decided that chapter names are probably a needless extravagance, especially if I was just going to dash them off now.  But I remember now that there was one character arc which needs to be made slightly more compelling.  Now I'll really take a break and...

8:57: ...get back to it now.  If I get this done, and I suspect I will... it kind of makes me wish I had done this on a day when I had more options for celebrating.

10:12: Draft done and distributed to beta readers.  What a day.  There wasn't much to expand, as regarded that subplot, but that's probably good, because I don't want to overexpand it.  I should probably not touch Hengist and Undine again for any reason for a few days, maybe write a few palate-cleansing short stories.  And I should definitely get started on deciding where I'm going to send this.