The Book That Won't End

I've been working on the 3rd book in this trilogy, trying to reach the end, and I'm having the devil of a time getting there, because the book has somehow grown in the writing of it. I have 150,000 words I can use to write the story--600 pages, assuming 250 words per page.

I write longhand first drafts, remember, and I am typing it in as I go. I just typed in page 601. And I have a bunch of pages left in my blue manila folder to be typed. This explains part of why the book won't end. I am insanely longwinded.

I have identified some scenes that can be cut and several places that can be thinned out and others that can be summarized. But that's still a lot of verbiage, and I'm not sure that all of it can go.

Part of the reason it's so long is that not only do I have to tie up all the threads in This book, but since it's the last book in a trilogy, I have threads from the earlier books I need to tie up. I made Obed im-Shakiri a very mysterious man, and now I have to explain most of that mystery. Who he is and where he came from. And the demon is the biggest and the baddest. And--well, there's just a lot of stuff to do.

I think I jinxed myself when I titled it The Eternal Rose.

Seems it wants to take an eternity to get itself written. (sigh.)

Onward and upward.

Gail (who actually may get to write The End tomorrow or the next day) (knock on wood!)