<p>This first draft was supposed to be put to bed tomorrow, in very rough fashion anyway. My deadline, as always. No one else's. I have lots of room in the schedule for delivery -- next year's book is written so this one won't appear till 2012. But I still like to hit my own deadlines and this time I won't.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<!--more--><p>Because there's something wrong in the flow of events to the climax. Maybe something's missing that needs to be put in. Maybe something's in there that needs taking out. More likely it's a combination of both and what I need to do is take out the offending elements, flush them down the pan, then rebuild with something better that works.</p>
<p>All of this is happening at the very end of the book. At about the 105,000-word mark in a work that will probably end up around 120K in length. There are several options I could take at this stage.</p>
<ul>
  <li>Put the offending sections to one side and go on and finish the final, closing sections of the book anyway. They won't be changed by this glitch in the narrative (it's a technical issue to do with the progression of the story, not something that changes the outcome).</li>

  <li>Go back and take one more pop at rewriting the thing (which has been rewritten three times this week already).</li>

  <li>Walk away from the whole thing for a few days and see if my head clears.</li>

  <li>Take a briefer break this morning and come back this afternoon to see if it looks different.</li>
</ul>
<p>It's five past eight in the morning right now. I've already taken out two offending paragraphs that were -- I realised around three this morning -- part of the problem. I'm sitting here finishing a cup of coffee wondering which option to take.</p>
<p><b>Writing the end</b> is appealing because I know what happens there and can't wait to try putting it down. That would be the <i>easy</i> option. I am temperamentally opposed to easy options. If this issue were less annoying then maybe the idea of dealing with the conclusion first would appeal. At the moment it doesn't.</p>
<p><b>Taking a few days off</b> doesn't really feel right if I'm honest. That works when you're either so close to or far from the solution you need to walk away from it for a while and get some new perspective. I don't need a new perspective. I just need a sequence of events that feels right, feels natural, not, as it does right now, a touch manufactured.</p>
<p><b>The lawn</b> is long and could do with a mow. I think a lot while riding my John Deere out there, honestly. It's a great way to mull over a book away from the computer. But it's eight in the morning, the lawn is sopping wet. This is not a mowing time. So...</p>
<p>It's back in there for one more rewrite. Maybe this time it'll work. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><br />