Writing a book part 22
So far, I have stuck to my schedule for finishing the final chapters of my book - writing 300 words every weekday means finishing a chapter every two weeks, which will mean it's mostly finished by the end of July when I will stop for the summer break. I'm currently a third of the way through chapter 23.
With the finish line in sight, it feels like I'm rushing slightly, and that what I'm writing isn't especially good. I made the mistake of glancing back to an earlier chapter to remind myself of something and realised that one of my characters has a totally different style of speaking at the beginning of the book to how I am writing him now. This is perhaps one of the pitfalls of writing over a long period of time (two years, in my case) - it's easier to become inconsistent.
However, my intention is to continue writing, even if I don't think it's great material, so that I have a completed first draft on schedule. Then, the rewriting can begin. Quite how long that will take, I don't know, but from this perspective I am looking forward to the satisfaction of resolving all the weak passages and inconsistencies currently litter the book.
I saw a great quote recently:
“Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat”
This makes sense to me, because the biggest obstacle to writing is simply sitting down and getting the words on the page. If I can get the entire book written, then any rewriting tasks should be easy by comparison.