Leonard Cohen Afterworld

I think from the last two titles of my update threads, you can guess what I listen to while typing. Actually, it's random, but these two songs have popped up right when I went to put the finishing touches on my blog updates.

I felt this one was appropriate, given that I just pounded out the last lines to the final chapter in my book. This is not to say that I'm finished, merely that I finally finished chapter 31, which is the final chapter in the book (not counting the epilogue). It was a long, strange ride getting there, too. I actually had to delete about three pages of my first attempt, repaste them, and then go back and edit and re-edit the parts between where I hadn't cut and where I repasted. Eventually, I got that part right (or right enough for now) and the remainder of the chapter just flowed. It flowed so well that the chapter I was intended to be between 12-14 pages ended up being 22 pages.

There was some extra, tricky stuff involved in this chapter. I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, but I didn't know how to pull a couple of things off. I'll have to have my wife read through the passages, to make sure they aren't TOO awful. If anything, I really, REALLY strive to avoid camp, cliche stuff in my writing. For these particular scenes, I tried laying the foundation throughout the other chapters concerning these characters. We'll see if it worked.

So, that does it. That wraps up the story arc for one set of my characters. I still have the penultimate chapter, in which all the main characters are brought together in battle form (with kung fu grip), but that's a battle scene and critical to the entire story; it's not critical to the development of these two characters so much as it is for the entire story overall.

I'm rambling because I'm so effing tired.

So, to recap, it's easier to tell you what I DON'T have done at this point (and where I am on those chapters): 10 (3 pages finished), 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 (nothing done), 30 (five pages done). Sadly, it's not looking like the end of the month to finish this is doable. I have made some big strides with chapter 10 and look to finish that and possibly one other by the end of the month.

The numbers:

Page Count: 437
Word Count: 133,821

More later in the week. My brain's about to melt.