Chapter 14 by Joan Lennon

Chapter 14.  I'm pretty sure every book has one.  Of course, it could be called something else, like chapter 10 or chapter 6 or chapter 27.  I mean, if it were ALWAYS chapter 14, you could just refuse to have one in your book - skip it and boldly go straight from chapter 13 to chapter 15.  But no, it moves about.  I've even known a version to occur in poetry, though there we're talking about a line or even a word, not a chapter.  But in the novel I'm currently writing, it's chapter 14.

It's the beast. 

(Dunkleosteus marsaisi - Wiki Commons)

I am really, really close to being finished* writing this book.  Draft after draft, I have grappled and manipulated and wooed my tiny socks off.  And chapter 14 has fought me/is still fighting me every step of the way.  I have science to cut back on, inconsistencies of tone to fix, tension to keep cranking and a character I'm particularly fond of to shoot.**  I WILL domesticate this beast of mine, but it may take some time.  Some MORE time.

That's my beast.  Anyone out there wrestling a beast or two of their own that they'd like to tell us about?  

Be brave - you can do it!



* It's hard to find images of "really, really close to being finished".  The best I could think of is "something really, really small".  So here a couple of pygmy marmosets from Edinburgh Zoo.

** (Well, not me personally, but there are some snipers and their intentions are not benign.)

Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Walking Mountain.