I’m on the verge of finishing the first draft of my latest novel. I know, I’ve been saying that for at least a month. But now The End is really, truly in sight, just one short scene away. “So, why don’t you just buckle down and finish the thing?” you may ask. And my answer is….I don’t know.

I want to be done with this draft. Really, I do. I’ve been working on it since September, and the thought of writing that final sentence fills me with a sense of incredible freedom. But given how slowly this last few-thousand words has gone, I also wonder if maybe it fills me with something else – namely, fear.

Why would I be afraid of finishing a manuscript? Well, of course, there’s fear of failure. What if, after all that work, I read through the draft and discover that it’s a pile of crapola and that I’ve just wasted seven months of my life? Or what if I  see some potential in the story but have no idea how to bring it out?

And then there’s fear of success: What if I’ve written such an amazing blockbuster that I receive a mammoth book deal and have to travel the world doing book events and my life, as I know it, will never be the same? Hmm. Somehow I doubt this is my issue.

I have a feeling that what I’m experiencing is just plain old fear of the void. What will I focus on when I no longer have this gargantuan task in front of me? How will I fill my time? What problems in my life that I’ve been avoiding by being insanely busy will use this opening to rear their ugly heads?

What about you? Have you ever avoided finishing a draft? Why?