Whole Lotta Pages

Yesterday I passed the 110,000 word mark on Book Six. I have three days to finish writing and then do a quick edit, so the word count could go either way. Bear in mind, though, that Mortal Coil was about 105,000 words- so it looks like the new one will be even longer.

As I get into the last few weeks of writing a book, I tend to get a little bit paranoid. I start to wonder if, maybe, the thing I’ve written is not a book at all- maybe it’s just a collection of chapters that don’t fit together into one long story. Maybe I’ve been wasting my time. Maybe I should have abandoned this idea before I started writing, and headed off in another direction. What if it’s rubbish? What if it’s awful? What if nobody likes it?

And then I remind myself that I am, in fact, the Golden God, and everything I do is absolutely wonderful, so naturally Book Six is going to be brain-punchingly brilliant.

These last minute doubts are nothing new, of course. I always get them. I’m sure that practically every writer does. The only way through them is to have faith in yourself and your own ability, and to keep on going no matter how anxious you get. It’s not easy, to work on through your doubts, but if you ever want to be writer then it’s something you’re going to have to deal with, sooner or later.

It REALLY helps if you’re arrogant- because so long as you don’t take it seriously, arrogance can be a LOT of fun.

I wrote the last page this morning- or some of it, at least. I’m still going back through it all, linking things up, changing things, switching them around, writing and rewriting, so even though I’m on the last page, it doesn’t mean the book is finished yet. But ohhh, what a last page. The first trilogy ended with Skulduggery being sucked through a portal- an act that had severe consequences over the following three books. The end of THIS trilogy, therefore, needs to have the same kind of impact on the next three.

I’m not saying the endings are in ANY way similar, because they’re not. The Faceless Ones ended with the reader shouting “Oh God no no no NO!” whereas Book Six will end with the reader saying “oh... hell...” very, very quietly.