I did a lot of polishing today, and added the scene that I think I always knew needed to be in this story, but didn’t want to write, because it was so emotional. This is a supernatural horror story, but it’s also about loss, and I think I needed to write it to deal with some substantial loss I’ve experienced in my own life. I had to experience the things my protagonist experienced, so I could write about them from his point of view, and make sure they were real. In the process, I put myself through a lot of intense emotions.
I think it works, and I think it makes the story better, but I’m not sure. I’m just emotionally exhausted, and I feel like I’m simultaneously going to collapse into a sobbing heap, and throw up.
I’m pretty sure that I’m done with this draft, and I’m going to hand this off to a couple of early readers to get their feedback. Depending on what they tell me, I may undo a lot of the stuff I did today, or rework it.
In either case, I’m extremely close to being finished.
