Writing Over The Hump

My novel in progress is starting to move at last.I have worked hard for a long time on this weighty story, hauling its characters and plot up a long track of prose against the dragging forces of distraction and disinterest. It's gathering power and speed now, the way a roller coaster does when momentum grabs hold at the top of that first great big hill.I've been on this ride before. There's no feeling like it. When a story slides over the summit and starts that plummet towards completion, my heart jumps into my throat, and it's a long, screaming, thrill trip to the end of the line.But I'm not there yet. Enthusiasm is building with every rattling scene completed, but there's reluctance too. When it's over, it's over, and I never want the ride to stop. I don't even like to open the file these days. Starting brings me that much closer to stopping.The procrastination stage never lasts. Avoidance can't hold back a developing story any more than screaming and waving hands will stop a roller coaster's relentless progress.  At some point soon--very soon--the writing will carry me out of the world .I am ready. Let creative gravity suck me down, let the twists and curves shake my soul loose and speed me along until I'm wrung out and exhausted. And when it spits me out, crying and laughing and breathless with pride, I will coast to the exit and run back to the head of the line again.Look, out, here I go.

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Endings Are Beginnings