Back To The Writing Life

I feel like I’ve just returned from my research trip, talking about the places I’ve been and sharing my pictures. It was so much fun to relive that trip!

But even as I took a little portion of recent days to revisit those places, I’ve been continuing with my work-in-progress. In fact, I turned in the first draft to Tyndale. Endings always amaze me. Sometimes they seem so far off, like I’m never going to get there. But when I do, I feel a mix of sadness and relief. Relief that I had another whole book inside me after all, one that’ll be turned in on time, but sadness because that sense of first discovery is over.

Not that I don’t love the revision stage! In some ways I enjoy it even more, because I can work on revisions almost anywhere and at any time. For the creation of a novel I prefer quiet solitude, uninterrupted time that we introverts need. But with the gist of the novel on paper, or I should say on screen, I can work through it even amid family demands or other business responsibilities looming.

I must say, though, that the ending to this project was more of a challenge than usual. I’m not really sure why. In my original proposal, I’d outlined the ending as thoroughly as any seat-of-the-pants writer can. But when I reached a point where my two main protagonists were at their black moments (facing it together, how romantic!) it occurred to me that the ending as I’d originally envisioned would be too far from this climax of plot action, personal angst, and renewed allegiance to God.

To cut it off seemed to be rushing things, though. Yet to keep the original idea seemed anti-climactic. So what to do?

I turned it in with what I thought was the strongest ending, keeping the pages brief after my characters are saved from their darkest hour. The reason I did that was because, as a reader, I always resent it when writers waste my time. I want to be taken on an adventure, but I don’t want to be strung along for extraneous pages. And as I’ve said before, I’m a writer but I’m a reader first.

So now I wait to hear from my editors. One thing I’ve heard already was a cheer for staying under the word limit. Have I mentioned I’m verbose? Not necessarily in person, but on the page. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I get frustrated when another writer wastes my time. Because that’s something I’m afraid I’ll do to someone else.

I guess I’ll wait to see if they think I should revisit the ending, but at least if they do I’ll have permission to go beyond the word count. Or, Heaven forbid, I may be directed to cut something else while extending the end. I had to laugh as I typed that line, because for writers, I think it’s pretty universal that cutting precious words takes some getting used to. Like anything, though, it easier the more often you make yourself do it. 🙂