Home Again

... and looking forward to some decompression time before it's back to the family whirl. I'll know in a few days whether I'm correct that my stress levels are way back down in the green zone again. It's really hard to tell when I'm not in my own native environment.

Writing Rules

So my current fiction writing project I've been approaching as a "process experiment", trying to alter the ways I approach novel writing to see if I can't overcome some of my deficiencies. One of my current rules is to write front to back -- no jumping around. Well, I broke that one tonight. Because having finally mapped out the overall plot arc (that is, having finally figured out what it was so I could map it), the concluding scenes jumped out at me and whapped me upside the head. So tonight I wrote the concluding scene of Part IV and next I will probably go ahead and write Part V (which is more of a coda than a full-fledged "part" -- the parts are defined by where the action takes place, to some extent). The thing is, endings are something I usually have a really hard time with. And this time the ending is perfectly clear in my mind at the moment and I don't want to lose it. (Even if it changes later.) I know exactly how and why my protagonists have a complete breakdown of communication over what the resolution to The Mystery means to their relationship. And I know roughly how (and very clearly where) they solve this breakdown. I don't think this will undermine the drive to get all the parts in between written. We still have to get through a lot of secret rituals, precipitous flights, attempted abductions, treasonous plots, courtly intrigue, and skulking villains.