The Chapter We All Dread

At least most involved writers dread this one. It's the chapter toward the crisis for your characters. It's nearing the end of the novel and this is the time when characters must decide their loyalties and obligations.

Since this book has two different perspectives, it will technically have two crisis. The first one, the one I'm at, is Arobin's chapter. I'm at the final chapter before it and I completely don't want to push forward. I hate crisis. Sometimes they present the hardest material to write. For me, they are far more difficult than the beginning, the halfway point, and even the climax. Most readers assume the climax is the most difficult. It is of course the point of most suspense, the very moment where the future of your characters is decided and they take action.

What readers don't realize is that the crisis exists before then. If you notice, most books/movies/stories have a point where their main character is challenged with a massive obstacle and their will is broken down. At this point, your character must either decide to continue or give up. It's the crisis that determines what their fate will end of being more so than the climax. Crisis just tend to be smaller and less noticeable.

This crisis is making me incredibly sad. After reuniting Arobin with the love of his life and placing him with people and friends he trusts, I'm finally removing him from this area. I think what I'm most sad at is in the chapter before, the one I'm working on, Arobin gets his last moment with his wife. It's a tender moment, something I've never written before. Because of this it means so much to me and it means even more to my characters. To write these final words and exchanges knowing that they will never speak again while they have no idea of what's coming the next day fills me with an unstoppable ache.

Sometimes the job of the writer is so bitter and difficult that it fills me with frustration. I almost feel like I'm playing god to people who have no control over their lives.

But, in all actuality, isn't that how reality is? We don't have control over what's happening the next day. We don't know where we'll end up. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take whatever is thrown at us.