I have this creeping fear that I’ve written myself into a corner and by doing so will need to rewrite a fair portion of this novel… again. I am hoping it isn’t true. I am going to let my hindbrain work on the problem overnight, so that I can manufacture a solution that gets me out of this thing. It doesn’t make a lot of sense the way things are wrapping up right now. The end is a bit of an escape room, with the timer not being as fully present or as critical as I want. It all feels forced and feels like it is going to end abruptly. This all turned sour on the twist, which I wanted to slip in there but hadn’t fully digested the consequences of.
That twist leads to a compromise that introduces a squad of new characters at the very end of the novel. This is a writing faux pas. Not a good look in any way. So, I need to figure out how to minimize the arrival of these new entities without distracting from the main thrust of the plot and the ticking clock rushing the story towards its conclusion. I have to figure all of this out tomorrow in this last chapter before the Coda.
I have no idea how to make that happen. The reality is I’ve dug myself a hole that is quite deep, and I need to figure out where the edges are so that I may attempt to patch it. Sometimes it takes ten minutes just to sort out the problem in your head so that you have a chance to fix it.