A wee brown fairy - from the fun I've been having with the graphics tablet.

And here it is - June.  Arrgh!  The novel still not done, but I have been having 'fun' getting it to its final days - novel time, that is, not real time.  Or rather - world time.  Of course, as see from above, I've not entirely been engaged in writing.  Playing with a new toy as well - which hasn't been entirely a distractive exercise (yes I know there's no such word, but I think there should be - it's exactly what I want there).  It's enabled the brain time to chug through all the thoughts of the novel, to get towards the point where yes, there is an ending and what's more - it's a good path to the ending.  The ending I had quite some time ago, but to get there? What's that saying about the journey being the thing, not the destination?  Very very true in novel writing, I think.  Sure, the ending is the pay-off.  It must have that sense of satisfaction, of things properly sorted, not necessarily emotionally overwhelming, but certainly something that makes the reader sigh, smile with satisfaction and close the book, getting up to get a cup of coffee, or a fag, or whatever with a smile on their dial.  They've invested time in this book - you gotta give something in return.
And I think I've found it.

Sigh - 'cause it's a couple of days later and I've realized some things work, but others don't so I've had to do profound and concentrated 'thinks', but had now 'found' another path to the ending! 

There is something to be said to plotting out a book, chapter by chapter, but I doubt whether even that would work.  Generally, I just start and go where the story takes me, then when I'm a certain way in, know the story in vague outline sketches.  That's what's happened this time, but then, as it's for my PhD, therefore subject to whims and changes outside of my control, I find what I'd originally thought could happen no longer has the word space (big boo to supervisors who alter word lengths downwards when you are nearly finished the 1st draft!).  So have had to change things and am now onto more drastic changes.  Some will certainly be for the better, others not so - I'm saving those for the after-PhD-novel.
That's a project I am really looking forward to - the whole tapestry.

And no - I do *not* resemble the above brown fairy :-)