Right now I want to share a few thoughts about the nearing-the-end-of-a-book syndrome I always experience at this stage.
With just 5 out of the 70 or so chapters still to write, I'm finding myself slowing down. I know what is going to happen, more or less, and the synopsis is written, more or less. (I say 'more or less', because I never know when something might crop up that changes things.) It's pretty much sorted. All I need to do is settle down and finish writing it.
Does anyone else experience the same slowing down as the end of a book approaches? I suppose it's a kind of writer's block, and it happens every time I am near the end of a book.
There are number of reasons for this phenomenon. The book and its characters occupy the author's thoughts for a while and it can be hard for a writer to let go, like a mother seeing her child leave home. It's worse than feeling reluctant to finish reading a book. You can reread a book. You can't rewrite one. At the same time, there's the anxiety that accompanies completing a MS. Throughout the writing process it's a work in progress, and the author's attention is all on the writing. Once it's finished, the questions inevitably start: 'Does it work?' 'Is it any good?' and 'What have I done?'
So what is the solution to this writer's block against finishing a MS? - apart from a publisher's deadline, which is a very effective cure for 'writer's block'!The truth is, I have a cracking idea for the following book - 6th in the series - and I'm impatient to see how to make that work. The joy of writing a series is that as soon as one book is completed, there's another one waiting to be written.
That's what drives me on to finish a book once the end is just a few chapters away. Of course I owe it to Geraldine's fans, waiting to read my next novel, and to my publisher who has signed me up for three more books in the series.
But if I'm honest the real reason I can't delay finishing the WIP for long is that can't wait to get on with the next one! Love that writing!
