I’ve abandoned my 1000-word-a-day goal, but that’s a good thing. Now I’m sprinting for the finish line. In the last three days I’ve written something like 5,000 words and I’m almost to the big climactic climax of the story. There’s a lot that goes on in the end of this book; it may need to be streamlined when the time comes for revision. I’m doing my best not to worry about that yet.

This is the point, for me, when writing begins to feel like mild insanity. The story starts to follow me everywhere and distracts me when I’m trying to have conversations. I wake up from convoluted dreams starring my characters and plot points (once, when I was writing my first novel, I swear I had a dream in text. No joke) and I have trouble falling back asleep afterward. I catch myself mouthing lines of dialog on the train.

Maybe I write fast because I’m so eager to return to my normal thought patterns. Or maybe it’s writing fast that makes me crazy in the first place. Either way, I don’t actually mind this period so much. Writing a novel is such a drawn-out and often boring process that it’s nice to get an exciting week out of it at the end.

Three days left, maybe even two if I’m quick. Stay tuned.