okay, okay, back to the trudge

63078 / 80000

20k (or 17k) feels like less when it's at the end of a novel than at the beginning, but it still feels like a lot.

In other words, when I had the first 20k of this novel, I was very pleased with myself. I felt like I had gotten a lot done.

Now, with 20k (or rather 17k) left of the novel, it just feels like I have the last few events to put into place and then it will all be done and over with. Which is... not really true.

On the other hand, I can't think of this 20k (17k) as being A Lot Wow, because if I do, I will start to panic and never get anything done.

I thought it was supposed to get easy near the end?

I guess if it turns out to be shorter I can just add in a few thousand words of Epilogue where they all apologize to each other for being mean and everyone reconciles. Or don't reconcile. And in the next draft I will actually describe things instead of just being vague, and that will make up for it, and no one will ever know.

(Yes, this is known as bribing myself with the promise of Easy to get myself writing, because probably my length prediction of 80k will turn out to be right anyway.)