Week Ten: Nearly There

Holy shit.

So last week I began renewed with a sense of hope and optimism.  And it didn't fade - by Friday I was maxing out at a 15 page day.

I also wrote what will be the last scene of the book.  Contrary to the happy-go-lucky feeling I had while writing, the ending is much darker than I originally anticipated and leaves it much more ambiguous as to whether or not the goal is actually accomplished the way the protagonists think it is.  Of course in Farrell-dream-world where it rains cookies and ponies are common household pets, this novel is just the beginning of a series, so that kind of ending makes sense, since it leaves a good jumping place for the next book's plot to begin; however, I am trying to allow for the book to be a stand-alone, so that just makes it a slightly downer ending.  That does fit with the tone of the book, though, so I'm not too distraut.  It was strange writing the last scene.  I've never written a last scene of a novel before.  Short stories, absolutely - mostly because my short stories have one scene, which makes writing the last scene far less monumental.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I write the other last scene, not chronologically within the novel but that I will write for this draft.

Technically that should be happening either this coming Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, by the way.  I say "technically" because I'm babysitting for my adorkable nephew again on Thursday and Friday.  For those days, I'll be skipping ahead to my agenda for Week Twelve:  I've divided the manuscript into 6 neat chunks and will be editing one chunk a day.  So, Thursday and Friday, I'll have a hardcopy of the first chunk (I doubt I could get to the second one) that I'll edit betwixt moments of helping him stand, playing with him, feeding him, changing him, calling him adorakable, etc and while he plays/naps.

My nephew's mother is completely fantastic, in case I haven't mentioned.  I don't want to say too much until things are more certain, but she's a graphic designer/web designer/book illustrator, and she's trying to get me an intro to an editor she's doing some design for.  I adore this woman.  She called me about it last Thursday, and it's very exciting because it's... real.  I don't know how else to describe it.  With the book coming to a close, the prospect of meeting an editor just mkaes everything I've been doing for the past ten weeks now, and will be doing for the next three weeks, feel just utterly real.