Saturday 23 November 2013

rambling on about … my novel writing journey … day twenty three

 

DAY TWENTY THREE - SATURDAY

Words written today – 2,695

Total words written – 50,559

Words remaining – 0

Days remaining – 8

NaNoWriMo - one month (November), 50.000, no life.

I HAVE FINISHED.  I AM BEREFT.  AS I TYPED THE LAST FEW WORDS – THE ENDING – I FELT A MIXTURE OF RELIEF, EXCITEMENT AND SADNESS – IT IS DONE – NOW I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE 25TH BEFORE I CAN LOG IN MY WORD COUNT.  PHEW! Below is the ending that I chose.

I could hear Antaeus calling to me in the soft singing-sighing of the wind. I pushed it from my mind, refused to hear it. We went back inside the hut on the beach, and I saw the letter from my father propped up against a jam jar of dead flowers on the table.

Jed asked me if I was going to read it, I said no, I knew what it said – I think I had all along. I knew my father believed that Aedre was my mother, she may well have been, but she wasn’t the woman that he believed she was. Somehow, in his befuddled, crazy mind he had believed it, wanted to believe it. He had spent the whole of his life believing it, waiting for her return, and in the end when he couldn’t take any more of the desperate waiting, he had walked into the sea in search of her. I hoped he could find peace now, wherever he was.

I asked Jed to fetch the petrol can from the ‘beast’ he looked at me for a second, then fetched it, he knew what I was going to do, something I should have done a long time ago.

I stood in the doorway and took one last look at my childhood home. There was evil here, disguised as love, and I wouldn’t let it take any more people, especially not me. Not now; now that I had found what I had been looking for all along; the love of a good man and a child of my own.

I lit a match and threw it on to the rug where the petrol can lay on its side. As the flames grew and devoured the hut I turned and walked away. Let it burn and be done with it. I had a life to live. I smiled at Jed and JP. ‘Come on - let’s go home.’

THE END

20 comments:

  1. Well done! Now you can take a rest for a while before starting the rewrite. Flighty xx

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    1. Thanks Flighty - the end of the marathon - I shan't know what to do with myself now.

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    2. You're welcome. I've been trying to catch up with my reading since I finished mine. xx

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    1. Thanks Jessica - back to normality for a little while.

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  3. I LOVE that ending!!! Congratulations, I can imagine why you feel bereft.....I feel kind of bereft too.xxx

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    1. Thanks Dina so glad you enjoyed taking the journey with me.

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  4. Now when you are published we will now the ending. You do have me intrigued though as how could a father not know who the mother of his child was wonder

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    1. You would have to read the whole story - it's complicated but I like the fact that you are intrigued - that's what I was aiming for!

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  5. I followed your progress daily and this is then the end. You make me more curious about the book. The end makes me think of Rebecca of Daphne du Maurier.

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    1. Daphne du Maurier would turn over in her grave if she heard you comparing my efforts to her wonderful novel, thanks anyway. Yes, it is the end for now, but I hope to work on it during the winter to improve it - this is only a rough draft, so it needs a lot of work.

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  6. Well, the ending sounds great. What about the rest? Will we ever be able to read your book?

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    1. Thanks Mark. I think it will take a great deal more work yet to get it to that stage, but you never know.

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  7. WOOHOO! Well done you. I don't know how you did it, 2000-ish words a day. I struggled with a 2000 word essay over a couple of weeks! Fantastic and now you can relax and get back to normal again.
    Patricia x

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    1. Thanks Patricia - it was certainly a hard slog - it will be nice to give my brain a rest for a while.

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  8. Well done! I hope you treat yourself to something to celebrate. The ending sounds very intriguing. I can imagine that you do feel all sorts of emotions about completing it.

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    1. Thanks Wendy - it was my husbands birthday today so we went out for a double celebration! I must admit I did feel emotional when I typed the final words and had to leave behind the characters I had grown fond of over the last few weeks.

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  9. Congratulations, Elaine - you met the deadline, no mean feat! I'm sure you haven't really left your characters behind, you'll be whittling away at them in your head for quite a while. You've inspired me to pull my writing out of the cupboard and give it a good, hard look!

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    1. Thank you. No I haven't left the characters behind - I have just started the re-write, I have a feeling they will be with me for a lot longer.

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  10. Total admiration from me. I wish I had your discipline. Thanks for letting us read a snippet. Very intriguing, I was imagining the characters in my head and heard the waves. Also loved all those quotes on writing. So true.

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