"It works"

Well, this week was supposed to be my writing week, but as it turns out my day-job project was delayed by a week, so writing was delayed the same amount. Houston, please reset the clock to T-minus 3 days and some change.

In a curious twist, though, I've been able to spend a lot of the last week (particularly in the evenings) organizing my thoughts, and getter much better prepared for next week. This included filling the largest hole in the story - the climax.

I certainly didn't start out intending to write the buildup and the conclusion first, and then fill in the connection between the two last. In fact, as I fleshed out the end pieces, I realized (a couple of nights ago) I had no idea how Alina, my protagonist, was supposed to beat her opponent. I knew what the aftermath should look like, and what the ante-math should look like, but the "math" was proving to be a hard nut to crack.

I did finally manage to come up with a scene that I was pretty happy with. My wife gave it a very reserved "it works" when she read my outline for the scene. Hopefully I'll be able to find ways to make it a little more suspenseful for the general reader, and rate a little higher than "it works".

With the climax written, I now had a complete skeleton, and of course by "complete" I mean it connects the story end to end, much like a chain-link fence is a solid wall. A small triumph, but one that I think I'm allowed to enjoy.