Holding off the finish.

As you know, I rarely hold off writing waiting for "Inspiration."   For me, that's a recipe for writer's block.  Usually, if I set my mind to it, I find the words.  I subscribe to the five minute rule: sit down and do it for five minutes and if nothing comes, then quit.   But that rarely happens.

However, I'm at the end of Ghostlander.  Maybe 3 or 4 chapters left.  And even though I have a rough idea of how I want it to go, I'm not feeling it.

I've taken one day off already, then a store work day, and now today.  Still nothing. 

Obviously, the ending is important.  It's what the reader will take away, really.  The beginning is important to get the reader reading, the middle is important to keep them ready, so it's all important, but the ending may be most important of all.

This hitting a lull has happened before, and I think that waiting for a strong idea isn't the wrong thing to do, as long as the delay doesn't go on for too long.

The longest I've waited was a couple of weeks about 2/3rds of the way through Led to the Slaughter.  I had gotten the characters to where they were trapped and starving in the snows, but I couldn't figure out how to continue the story just constantly repeating how hungry and cold they are.

When I figured out Journal Entries were the way to go, that was the key that unlocked it.  In fact, I more or less went back and did as much of the book in journal entries as I could.

So I'm going to wander around the house muttering to myself until something hits.  I already know that in the next chapter something has to go very, very wrong.  And that has already sparked my interest more than I was before.  But I'm going to give it a bit more time to come up with a few other tweaks as well.

Still committed to finishing the book with this writing session.