Phew... just before the panic set in, I decided how my latest novel is going to end. I never do much planning, I just start with an event and see what happens. It's fun and can be unexpected. Yes, I do get a few moments of concern that I'll run out of ideas, but I always keep going. A week ago, as I reached about 72,000 words of a 80,000 novel, I still hadn't decided on the final scenes but fortunately inspiration came.
I went to visit a ruined building for the first time and realised it was the perfect location to bring the story to an end. I can't say where I was, but it was an amazing place to discover.
I've just written 1500 words of the last chapter, as I was so excited about it and I plan to finish it tomorrow. But... I did skip ahead and have another chapter to go back and write.
What next? I need to work through my list of things to check, just small queries that need finalising. Then the last chapters need to be checked by my good friend who reads everything as I write it, and will flag up any concerns about character development and consistency, as well as any phrases which are too modern or sentences that don't flow quite right. She also writes lots of lovely comments about my writing! Then it is off to the proof reader. While it's being checked, I'll be thinking about the cover design and organising that.
I can't add a photo of the place I discovered, so here is one of the stunning Dungeness landscape.
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