“As They Head Into the Final Turn…”

Recently, Jen completed the stubs that will take us all the way out to the end of the book. Being done stubbing meant she was able to rejoin Kent in the prose trenches. And, having both of us working in parallel increases our output, of course.

This time, the speed boost has felt particularly dramatic. Kent’s nightly word count is up compared to normal, and we’re both knocking out scenes at a great clip. Jen observed that, “Having the finish line in view seems to have lit a fire under us.”

Indeed. While we were somewhere in the middle, it felt like we weren’t gaining on it. For a really long time it seemed as if we were halfway done, and it was a bit demoralizing to add pages to it and still be halfway done, over and over. It was just an illusion, like when you go to New York and decide to walk to the Empire State Building. “It’s right over there,” you think. So you hike for blocks and blocks and still it’s right over there. And you start to wish you had taken a cab. But you do get there eventually! You were gaining on it the whole time, even though it didn’t look that way.

The completion of the stubs gave us perspective. It felt like we suddenly jumped from 50% complete to 85% complete. And that’s been quite energizing.