Grinding it out.

Would you think less of my writing if I tell you that sometimes I have to grind it out?

The last few chapters of Fairy Punk haven't come easy. I spent all yesterday doing a paragraph here, a paragraph there, finally getting the 2000 word chapter I was aiming for.

I read somewhere an established author who maintained that chapters that you grind out can be just as good as chapters that come in an inspired rush. That when you come back to the chapter later the qualitative difference is minimal, because your baseline writing is what it is--that is, your skill doesn't diminish just because it comes from work instead of inspiration.

I think I agree with that, more or less. I have found that chapters I grind out can be as good or better, or sometimes worse, or...but it isn't because I did or didn't have a rush of inspiration. It may not be as easy or fun, but they don't read any worse.

It makes rewriting a little more necessary, but that's going to happen anyway.

I'm up to 80K words, with the ending in sight. At least one more "travel" chapter before the fellowship arrives in New York, and then the end action scenes to get Iggy to the island, and then the climax.

So very close.

If I have to grind it out, so be it.