Celebrate with me, y'all!!!!! I finished last Saturday, May 12th, at 11:05am. I got up early. It was around 8 o'clock, and I dove into the final chapter. I meant to start the final chapter the previous day. My brother's birthday. But there was some cleaning up to do. I realized while I was handlin' otha people's newz that I loved the fact that I was down to the final chapter, but I had to go back and do some re-writes to the previous chapter. The final confrontation between the antagonist and the protagonists was tense, but it blew up into a cliche. So I scripted a proper scene and when I arrived home I re-wrote it. It didn't take long.
I only got about a line or two into the final chapter. I decided to rest on it for the night. There were a couple ways for the final chapter to play out that were in my head. All these possibilities of how the story could end, and I was looking for the most plausible. I didn't get much sleep that Friday night, and early Saturday morning I popped out of bed and started typing from the single sentence already written on the page. I had the ending, how it would logically play. One of the early outlines of the chapter, I was having trouble re-introducing a character back into the story. Not only did I have to re-introduce the character into the story, I had to catch them up on current events. But this was remedied with putting the character into the previous chapter and being part of the final confrontation with the antagonist. And this made much more sense, and it freed me up for more important bits that come in the final chapter.
So concludes another journey. It's been about a year since I started writing, but this story has been on the back burner for about ten years, more if you include other elements that were added to the story, including its title, which was supposed to be a line in a poem I wrote in college. Like I said in a blog entry called a New Hope, I had all the raw 'footage' as notes gathered together, but it all seemed so disjointed. I struggled to make it come together. All I really needed was for that first chapter, the introduction to the story, to be complete, focused, concrete. There was so much that needed to be presented in the first couple of pages of this project, and I needed it to come together smoothly. The flow in the narrative had to be tight, and the presentation near flawless until proper editing. After that, chapter 2, 3, 4, and so on were a breeze. There were some tedious moments, but everything fell into place a lot easier once the first chapter came together. Everything was ironed out. Even the tedious moments were not so tedious.
I've been going through the final act these last few days. Started Monday. Was hangin' out with my baby Saturday, her mom having come visit from Yonkers. I rushed to write before we had to go meet her mom, and I was kinda anxious the whole day while we were out and about in Manhattan to get back and look over the tale. I also had some changes I wanted to make. But, we hung out all day. It was cool. Her moms is mad cool. We went to a movie, had fun and pizza. Slept late on Sunday, and took the day to rest.
Yes, yes, yes. "Principal photography" has been completed. Post production is in full swing!
Almost finished getting the third act as tight as I can make it before sending it off to the editors. This broad sweep of editing and proofing will wrap up today. Once the third act is sent off, I'll start applying the edits from the first two acts. Should have a proof of the book by mid-June, and we'll have a good one or two reads through July.
August is the projected month for release.
"This...might work."
b write black
