The finish line

A wee while ago (OK, a long while ago), the lovely Becky asked me to write a post about finishing a novel. That's the tricky bit, you see. Starting is easy peasy. Well, it was for me. That's the exciting bit, when the possibilities are endless and you're going to create a MASTERPIECE. So you write, and you write some more, and you do horrible things to your characters and rub your hands together with glee. If you're anything like me, you add in random plot twists as and when the mood takes you. The words are stacking up, and before you know it, you have half a novel. YAY! Go you! This is a huge achievement.

And then it hits you. 'Whaaaaat? I actually have to tie up all those plot twists? Can't someone else do it for me? It's haaaaaaard.' This is exactly how I felt when I was writing Entangled. And it was bloody hard to overcome. You see, I'm all about creating problems - not so much with the solving. I very nearly gave up. But I didn't. And neither should you. Just keep on keeping on. One word at a time. You'll reach the end eventually. And it doesn't matter if you look back and think your novel is bobbins with a capital 'B'. You can rewrite the whole thing if you like. But at least you'll have something to work with - a beginning, a middle and an end.

It's true that I'm not particularly qualified to talk about how to finish a novel. I've only finished one thus far. But one is more than none. And hopefully I'll finish another one in the next few months. Hopefully.