For the first time in years, I’m approaching the end of a novel with an ending that’s fully planned out. Only a handful of chapters to go, so it’s barely even a question of maintaining momentum at this point. And yet, I often find this to be the point where I just lose interest in a project.

I’m not entirely sure why I do this. If I had to guess, it’s probably related to the same executive dysfunction that leaves me struggling to start things as well. But it also seems to be that life has a way of piling on top of me at the end of projects like this as well. And with a major project at work ramping up for conclusion in a week, that seems to be the case again now.

So suffice it to say that these coming weeks are likely to be a challenge. The one thing I have with this project that I hope will help to keep me going though is that this current storyline is not the only storyline. So when I finish this manuscript, I’ve still got another story to plan, more characters to explore, and not just a mountain of editing ahead of me.

Of course, that mountain of editing only get bigger with time – but hopefully the dread of that won’t slow me down anytime soon.

But what comes next? These last chapters will likely take me a couple more weeks, and then I’ll have a break from literal writing as I start planning the other half of the story. That will likely require me to go back through what I’ve already written and start marking places where content can be cut.

See my other problem is that, while this is a fantasy story and higher word counts are often the norm, I’ll already be up around 80,000 words for just this storyline, with another one still to add and then other snippets of a third to pepper throughout.

There’ve been a lot of places already where midway through a chapter I’ve realized that I could skip about half of what I’ve included. But the details are still necessary as I continue fleshing out the world and the characters, which means needing to write it all out to get it out of my head and solidified.

That part probably sounds unnecessary to a lot of people, but I’ve found that I need details written in a story format to actually make them concrete. Otherwise, it’s all so tenuous that I feel like I could just switch to whatever is most convenient at one time or another. When I write it out into the manuscript, I stick with that detail and make my characters find more creative ways out of the situations that arise.

What about you? Is your writing process this messy, or have I found my own unique blend of chaos and planning that could probably be a lot easier than I’m making it?

How do you feel when you get to the end of a project? Is it hard to find the motivation to keep going? How do you keep yourself moving forward despite all of life’s distractions?