Me: “Hey, I’ve always wanted to do a Joseph retelling. Maybe I should think about that, now that I’m making such good progress on my final installment rewrites.”
Brain: “Yeah, you’re doing pretty well on those. Just trying to weave all those subplots together into a satisfying ending.”
Me: “Yep. It’s complicated, but I’m going to get there.”
Brain: “You sure will. And on that note….”
Me: “Yeah?”
Brain: “You remember that thread with the really compelling final scene, the one that’s simultaneously heart-wrenching and heart-warming, so revealing of that character’s incredible growth, a real choker of a scene capping a constant low-grade undercurrent of political and physical threat from the second act of book one?”
Me: “Yeah?”
Brain: “You made some cool notes and all, but you totally forgot to put any of that thread in book two or book three before that final scene, which is gonna look lame on its own.”
Me: “What? None of it?”
Brain: “Nope. Not a single mention. Just shows up at the end like a feelz ex machina. You didn’t even add in the loose sketches you wrote.”
Me: “…..You couldn’t have mentioned this sooner? Like, while I was working on book two, maybe? Or earlier on book three?”
Brain: “You were in a hurry to get words for NaNoWriMo, you weren’t listening.”
Me: “I’ve been working on this for years. You don’t get to claim the last three weeks as an excuse.”
Brain: “I was thinking about other things, like complicating your resolution–“
Me: “I know.”
Brain: “–and adding another character–“
Me: “I remember.”
Brain: “–and I had to have that little freak-out about whether or not the final pairings were right–“
Me: “I was there.”
Brain: “–and I can’t think of EVERYTHING, you know.”
Me: “…So you wait until I am wrapping everything up to say anything.”
Brain: “You sound upset.”
Ladies and gentlemen, my “process.” In very heavy quotes.
