Distractions

The last two weeks have been filled with distractions for my writing and me. Some have been caused by circumstances beyond my control. Some have been caused by my own doings.

The former consisted of my dear nieces, who--up until last night--were staying at my parents' home, along with my sister, her husband, and their dog. The girls liked playing with some of the objects on my desk, but since they are boisterous girls (they are children, after all), any writing I did had to be done before they got home from preschool. Before my sister and brother-in-law went back to work (they work in school systems), I could do little work while they were home. Besides the girls, I also was helping my brother-in-law move items from our house to his new one almost every day after school. Friday I was given a reprieve, but I decided to spend it relaxing, since yesterday was THE BIG MOVE to their new house.

The latter consisted of my not writing during those aforementioned hours, when the house was quiet and nobody was home. I also went out a couple of times during the week, in order to get a break from the high energy level within this house, which has not been seen since my siblings and I were young children.

Despite both kinds of distractions, I did work much of Wednesday on my novel, though the time spent on it that day made up for sporadic work done on it throughout the week. I find that the closer one gets to the end of a draft, the harder it is to write, because now all of the loose ends must be tied up, and the whole must be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Readers will not forgive a writer for a bad ending, even if the rest of the book is well-written. The hard part is surrendering myself to the ending that the book wants.

I decided when writing the current version of the story that I didn't want a conventional ending, and I still don't. I can't, however, force the ending to be unconventional, just because I wish it. I have certain parameters in which I can work, but the parameters seem to exist between awesome and unbelievable versus believable and boring.

At least now that I have time to write, unrestricted by bedtimes, play times, and such, I should be able to finish off this draft in two weeks or less. Then, I must print it out, revise it again, put the revisions on the computer, and revise it while putting in revisions. After that, I can print out the entire work, put it aside, and work on some short stories.