Today I am despairing at ever finishing the draft I’m working on. This is mostly because my protagonist has totally exhausted me. She’s like that friend who you love dearly but who is going through horrible tragedy in her life, and calls you every day to tell you about it. You love her. You want to help her. You are happy you get to be there to talk her through it. But some days you’re so exhausted you want to hide in a hole and not answer the phone.
I’ve slogged through 5/6ths of a novel with this girl (again), and now I have to write her ending, her triumph (again). And I wonder where I’m going to muster the energy to deal with it.
My next book is going to be a happier experience. I write contemporary novels because they give me a break from the dark fantasy with deep psychological issues. They come faster. They feel lighter. For me, anyway, fantasy is so much harder to write than contemporary fiction, because you have to deal with all the elements in a contemporary novel, plus worldbuilding and magic systems. It’s just exhausting.
But before I can move on I have to dig out an ending to this one. It’s probably not going to be all that great, but it has to exist before I can revise it.
Never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for revision. If I had to get it right the first time (or in this case, the fourth or fifth), I’d be in trouble.
