Eighty

I’m done here. And faster than expected. I had told my editor that I would give her the manuscript at the very end of March. I was still telling a friend yesterday about my fear of not being able to keep my promise. I was in chapter sixty-nine. My novel contains eighty of them.

So I was surprised, at 5:00 p. m. sharp today, to read the last line. I must say, I’ve been here all day. A week ago, I stumbled upon a chapter whose introduction I didn’t like very much. Just two weeks ago, I was also struggling with a chapter that I thought was poorly written.

Each time, I was able to put my thoughts in order. And every time also the fear of missing something. A novel is not easy to get out of, especially when you’ve been writing it for so long. Is this proof that the text is not worth much? I wouldn’t go that far, though...

I had been asked to review the way I presented the dialogues, which are very numerous in this text. The course of the action is quite cinematographic, sometimes to the detriment of the literary character. This is what I have tried to correct, not by removing dialogues, but by taking care of their presentation.

It is a difficult task. It occurred to me last week to take a break and read some great novels, "to see how others do". And then I moved on, just got back to work.

Doubts remain, there will surely be more work to be done. Maybe I’ll still be asked to rework it all again. I don’t want to think about it. At the very least, I have taken another step in this process of completing everything that has been started in recent years.

This novel will have crossed many territories in my life. Several lines have been traversed. What name will it have? What will happen now?