Slowly, ever so slowly, the glacier that is my writing soul is melting. Unlike the polar ice caps, which comparatively, appear to be receding at light speed. It’s taken me literally months to lure the Muse back from Bermuda (that’s where She goes when She’s made at me – who can blame Her?) But I’m finally, regularly, getting words on paper again. At least 500 words a day during the work week. It feels reasonably good. But this particular story is still a slog at the moment. I want to be done with this novel. I want to move on to other projects. I have a whole crowd of them milling around like a bunch of needy undergrads with papers due clamoring outside my office door a la Raiders of the Lost Ark. But unfortunately, there is no back window for me to escape through. I must sit here and finish this dang thing.

I’m getting closer. I think. It took months, but I figured out where I went wrong. I went back, I rewrote what needed to be recreated, I figured out that the ending I thought was the ending was really the beginning of Book 2. And last night I think I figured out that the last three scenes I wrote need to be ripped out (again) to make way for what I’m calling “The Final Solution”. And no, I won’t be getting all genocidal on anyone. So now I have the ending in sight, I just have to get my group of adventurers from point A to point B, while making life increasingly difficult for them as we ramp up to the final confrontation. Not sure what that’s going to look like yet and before I write another word, I need to have that fixed in my mind. That’s what I’ll be doing at lunch today, figuring that bit out.

The best news is that I do have a whole ream of notes on revision. All this rework has shown me a lot about what I want my themes, where my character arcs are really going, and all the bits that I should have added but didn’t know that I needed to when I was doing the initial draft. So it’s all good. It’s all part of the process.

And thanks to my great virtual writing group (a shout out to YOU, Word Warriors!) I’ve also gotten unblocked on a fantasy novel that I started a couple of years ago, and have a new idea for a paranormal thriller.

So get ready for the sea levels to rise, dear readers. The ice is melting now. Soon Saskatchewan will be beach front property (note to self: buy property in Saskatoon). And I’ll have my first book published and available on Amazon before the Great Lakes become the Great Inland Sea.

Say… maybe this Global Warming thing isn’t so bad after all…