Final chapters and writer's block - never a good combination.

After months of struggling with difficult characters and a plot that I loved and hated all at the same time, I am nearing the end of Scarlet. You'd think I'd be writing like a maniac, trying desperately to get the words out onto the screen.

Instead, I'm stalled. I am at a really pivotal part of my novel. The part that hopefully brings many different things that I've already written into play. It's not an easy section to write even though it should be. These last few chapters were formed in my head almost before anything else. Hell, even before I really knew Will, Ellyn, Robin and the gang.

So what is causing this sudden surge of writer's block? I have a few theories. (Bear in mind, I am a neurotic writer, who is just dealing with one of those days where I am hypercritical of everything I'm writing. It'll pass and I likely shouldn't write this blog til I get past this day buuut I'm gonna keep writing. )

I've seen this part of my book in my head a thousand times. I know what is going to happen. I know how my characters will react. Hell, if I had an ounce of artistic talent, I could paint a picture of the entire scene. Yet now that I'm faced with the challenge of putting it down, I am worried that I won't be able to get the picture across as clearly as I want.

As I said before, this part of the book is key. And I can't say very much about this but my biggest fear is that I will write this and the emotional impact that I'm hoping for won't be there. If the emotion isn't right, then the rest of the book will fall flat.

And my last theory is that I have truly gotten to know my characters. I know their quirks and their strengths, but it was their weaknesses that really made them real for me. I'm sad to come to an end of this book because I do love the characters so much. They've made me laugh and cry as I write their words. (And yes, I know this makes me sound crazy, but I'm sure that I'm not the only writer that feels this way.)

They started as ideas, mere shells of the characters that they grew into and each one became so well developed in my head. There were entire sections of plot that I had to change because the more I wrote the more I realized that what I thought Will would do, or what I thought Victoria would do was absolutely wrong. And I would spend hours reworking the plot to fit the characters.

In the beginning, the plot started from point A and travelled to point B. And as I started to write things changed. Suddenly, after leaving the station at point A the plot detoured to point C, ventured out to points D and E, and there was a slight layover at point F before darting over to point X but ultimately ended right back up at point B where it needed to be.