The End is Near!

*Whew!* I have written 54,700 words of my 60-65k manuscript.

This is always the happy but tension-filled slide to the end of the book. I know my characters, I know what should happen at the climax of the book, all the players are on the chess board, so to speak.

But, I suck at chess. Or maybe suck is too strong of a word. I'm just not that great at it.

In my defense, I only learned to play chess in sophomore year of college. My boyfriend at the time, an egotistical photography student still in love with his devil of an ex-girlfriend, taught me to play. Then, when I won my first game against a mutual friend, my BF, watching from the sidelines, laughed and said I could have won three moves ago. Grrrrr.

Maybe I'm too spontaneous a decision-maker to be good at chess. When I do play, I'm looking at say, the next three moves. Those people who can see five moves of her own and her opponents? Totally not me.

In my writing, I see this is a good light. I'm open to the moment, to my characters who are acting on the stage I've built in my story. If I truly know them, they will do what they do "in character". They will show me possibilities my subconscious mind only hinted at. And the lovely verisimilitude that made shows like Seinfeld so great will surface in my novel. Loose ends magically tie. Things I never imagined connected will connect.

And if they don't? Well, that's the beauty of a novel -- and the vast difference between it and a true chess game -- you can go back! Enhancing, shading, foreshadowing, changing, scultpting? Every thing is fair game in revisions. :)

Did I mention I love revising?