When I say the end, of course I mean just the end of the first draft. It is already clear (as it always is at this stage) that there are things in the middle that need to be re-arranged a bit. However, I can cautiously say ‘The Queen of Scots Mystery’ is reaching its climax. Sadly I’ve just had to send another character to hospital., but it’s in a good cause as it means I am very much closer to catching up with the villain of the piece.
Two things always happen at this point in my writing. One is that I forget the names of the more peripheral characters, and I’m on such a roll with the story that I can’t be bothered to go back and look them up, so the final pages are peppered with asterisks to remind me to fill them in later. The second thing is that everything starts to accelerate towards the end and I have to go back later to fill in some explanations, otherwise nothing would make any sense at all.
Oh, and there’s a third thing. This is by far the worst. There’s a restless part of my mind that begins to think of the story I’m currently working on as complete, and starts to wander off in other directions. For instance, it has been trying to create a title and structure for the novel I plan to write in the summer, and I’ve been trying to calm it down by reminding it about all the research I have to do before I get anywhere near that stage.
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 