planning the end

"Planning the end" is the folder where I'm spending my novel time right now. Although it sounds like the title of a brochure you might get in the mail from your neighborhood funeral home, it is in fact full of hope and high expectations--because I can see the end in sight (even if dimly). The name of the file I'm working on is the story of what's coming up, a sequel to the story of what has happened so far, and so far it's a giant list of everything I thought might be in the novel but haven't used yet, culled from a raft of post-it notes, backs of the cards stuck in magazines, McDonald's napkins, and envelopes that once contained urgent messages from my bank, my electric company, my credit card people. These are all reminders of fleeting thoughts I've had while writing the novel, and it's a reminder of how fleeting my mind is, how tangential, how associative, how obsessed with trivia and minutiae--all of which is a strength I embrace and a weakness I'm always trying to cure.