I know you can't see me right now so you're going to have to take my word on something.
I'm dancing.
A super happy dance. I would go so far to say that I'm doing an Egyptian happy dance (rare and hard to quantify in words). What has brought this rush of crazed dance fever on?
I rewrote my ending. As in totally rewrote my ending.
It hadn't been sitting well with me since I wrote it, but I'm okay with being messy in a first draft. And boy howdy, but it was messy. I like to remember something I read in an interview from Sue Monk Kidd (love her!). Kidd said she doesn't stick with her first instinct when writing because it's usually the third idea she comes up with that's best. Well, I tweaked the ending in little ways, but it still tasted bad. The thing that bothered me most was that my characters didn't seem like themselves any more. And then my husband read it (intrepid explorer that he is!) and agreed that it was off.
If my biggest cheerleader says there's a problem I know there's a problem.
But I'll be darned if I couldn't get the thing right. But then, as I was brushing my teeth two night ago, a solution dawned on me. Of course, it's the simplest solution, but for the life of me I couldn't see it. The new ending ties everything together and allows my characters to be true to their natures.
So now the conclusion feels perfect, like coming home after a long day's work.
