Plan

It's good to have a plan - people tell me it is good to plan. E. Annie Proulx (The Shipping News) is said to plan a novel down to the last sentence.

Some people like to follow the meandering path of a plot and see where it takes them, adjusting the beginning to seem consistent with the ending. This method is fine and is the way my two novels came about. But this method is rather difficult; I found my anxiety about the books grew as I wrote. There is a vulnerabilty which comes about from not planning. I felt I could stop writing at any time because there was no expectation to finish, no sense of accomplishment, as there might be in a running race, in which the finish line is in sight. There was no finish line except a hazy heat blur far off in the distance.

Now there will be a finish line, even if it is a self imposed one. My character will have learned something. He will have travelled and discovered things. All my characters will have done this, travelled the narrative arc like Dorothy and co. on the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz. In the style of E. Annie Proulx I have a final sentence, or rather, a final image:

Six people looking out over a grassy green field at some newly built houses. The light plays on the damp roofs (it rained last night) and they are talking, summing up, taking stock. This might sound like a dull ending, a bland conclusion, to a book where, at the moment, nothing has happened, but this image is secure to me - it is my finish line, and I will keep it in my sights for the entirity of the project.