Michelle's corner

Just a quick update before I start my shift of chaos today.

Chapter ZZ is the name I give to the last chapter when I haven't got the numbering straight yet. It is the closure of the book and ties up the loose ends; giving the reader their final closure on the story. Occasionally, ZZ will hint at the future beyond the book; the next story that will never be told, because it isn't a part of this one, if you see what I mean.  That one has its bones down and has the muscle added. I like to keep it short and not drag it out, so it was relatively easy to write.

XX and YY are what I give to intermediate chapters when, again, I don't have the numbering down, but there is something I need to get out of my head, and have it in sequence. I intend to have XX done tonight, and it is the awkward scene that will cause me the most personal grief, both emotionally and technically.

I want to get it in one hit, but in all likelihood, I won't. I should get the bones down, though; the sequence of events, who was where, at what time. Then it is a case of forming the dialogue and then adding in the emotion, the physical body responses to events. Some chapters fly off the fingers. Some don't. Some come to me in an obvious blinding flash and are laid in an hour or two. Others have to twirl around my head for days on end before I feel ready to tackle them.

And beauty is in the eye of the beholder; so I know perfectly well that something which speaks my soul, can be simply glossed over by someone else as if it were just another chapter.

It really is an odd feeling; like as if you spent years in the desert building a pyramid single handed ... and then some tourist bus pulls up, people pile off, take snaps with their cameras, tick off a bucket list box and pile back on the bus to move off to the next place.

It's not hurtful ... just ... strange.