Happy, happy, happy Work in Progress Wednesday!!! If anyone else out there in the blogosphere wants to join in on the fun, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.
For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.
So, confession time. This past week I have been sweating bullets. Why? Because for the past three WIP Wednesdays (that would be editions #001, #002, and #003 for those who are counting) I have been blathering on and on about how I am almost at the end, it's so close it's not even around the corner, but right on my own doorstep, so close that I can almost lean forward and kiss its pink little cheeks.
There was only one problem, despite all my talking about it, I did not actually get to the end of my WIP. Which kind of makes me a schmuck. And while schmuck is a really great word and even more fun to say, it is less fun of a thing to be.
So, I decided to put my foot down - no, I decided to put my butt down. Yes, I set my butt on my falling apart desk chair and decided that both my WIP and my schmuckdom would come to an end in time for WIP #004 - or else.
I don't really know what the 'or else' would exactly have been comprised of, but I know it would have been terrible, like not letting myself have dessert for a week kind of terrible (Yes, I punish myself as if I were five. And it works.).
However, I am happy to report that I have avoided the awfulness of 'or else' (and will be able to watch my DVR'd American Idol while happily eating of the chocolate chunk banana bread I made this afternoon.) because I (only minutes ago!) wrote those two wonderful words: "the end."
Since I have sort of set a progress bar precedent and would not want to disappoint anyone (especially those who are here only because they entered something like "word meter" into a Google search and this page came up. Yeah, besides people looking for Kermit the Frog, the other most popular search item is people looking for word meters or oddly enough love meters. Clearly, I do not have the latter, and also am not sure if a meter can keep track of love in the same way it does word count, but good luck anyway in your continued searches for such a meter.) here it is:
Look at that yellow just bursting out! Hmm... Wait. Stop looking. I wanted yellow for sunshine and happiness because I reached the end, but now it just looks like my word meter has a leaky bladder.
Ahem. Anyway, about the end. It was not easy reaching it, and I am not sure this is really the end, but as far as the first draft goes it will have to do for now.
The not easy came earlier in my week of writing when the words were drying up and my ideas for what was supposed to happen at the end while they had been so perfect in my head, were not working out so well on the page. I muddled through, forcing myself to write my minimum five hundred words a day. And when I wasn't writing, I kept working away in the back of my mind, trying to figure out what was wrong.
On Sunday I had my "Ah-ha" moment. I think all writers know those moments. You find something out that you didn't before, and that one thing just works and makes everything better. After that I wrote 1432 words on Sunday, 1333 on Monday, and 2358 extra late night Monday and Tuesday.
As for not knowing if this is the end, well I will have to wait until I can look at it with slightly fresher eyes after a week of rest and also see what my beta readers think. What makes it tricky is that I am envisioning this as the first book in a series, so instead of the happily ever after that I wrote in my first novel, this one is more of a hopefully ever after, which means leaving some threads dangling, instead of all tied up in a neat bow. The question is how much to leave hanging without making the reader feel like they've been cheated out of a full resolution? I am sure I will be exploring this question further in future WIP Wednesdays.
However, that's it for this WIP Wednesday. Next week I'll be talking revisions and side projects.
In the meantime how is your WIP going?
Are you feeling schmucky for taking longer to reach your goals than you planned? Have you had any "ah-ha" moments?
Or have you reached the end, and did you know it when you got there?
I really love visiting the other blogs that have picked up this weekly meme or reading your wonderful comments - so keep them coming!
