This story seems to be taking forever–and I’m hoping to hell it doesn’t read as slowly as it’s being written. (I can see lots of rewrites in my future…) But at least I am getting there. I hit the 360 page mark tonight, so I’m really only 40 or 50 pages off the end. Though I’m not entirely sure I actually have 40 or 50 more pages of story to go. Still, if I get somewhere close, I’ll be happy.

I think half the problem is that the muse knows where she’s going. I wrote the ending months ago–in note form, granted–but it’s still an ending. And the muse hates that–it’s part of the reason I don’t normally plot. If I plot, the muse considers the story already told, and wants to play elsewhere. Right now, she wants to play with Riley 7. We’ve got lots of good things (meaning bad things for Riley) planned, and she wants to get to it. But without book 6, there is no 7, because a lot of the stuff that happens in books 7 & 8 is set up in six (and also in 5). So, 6 has to be finished.

I’m still hoping to get this finished within the next week. A task that would have been easier if Amazon hadn’t delivered my DVD’s so quickly (I really can’t get over just how fast Amazon UK are–none of this ten day rubbish like Amazon US. They’re brilliant.) Anyway, today I got the complete series of Robyn of Sherwood–the best telling of the Robyn Hood legend ever, as well as Alias Smith and Jones, an old US western series that was both smart and funny. Right now, I’m considering them my treat for finishing, but I was never one to deny myself a treat, so who knows how long that will last. lol.