Done? Can it be?
So last week sometime I mentioned how I was struggling with finishing the last chapter. I got that finished pretty soon after posting, but I wasn't ready to let myself celebrate, because then I moved on to the epilogue (which I decided really was necessary). I finished that over the weekend, I think...but then I still wasn't ready to let myself celebrate because when I was at about chapter 15 or so I realized that I needed to insert an additional chapter earlier but put it off until the end. So a couple nights ago I finished a scene within that chapter, and yesterday I just had it sitting open all day, not sure what to do with it. It was much shorter than any of the other chapters and seemed to need one more scene...of something. But I couldn't decide what.
So I'm declaring the first draft done. If it needs another scene, that can come in the second draft. Can I celebrate yet? I'm don't quite feel like it--there's so much I know I want to work on during the next phase that I'm in one of those this-is-a-bunch-of-crap phases. And I don't think it's quite real that the first draft is done. Maybe that'll hit me sometime over the weekend, and I'll feel elated.
Final word count is 120k, half again as long as either of the other two manuscripts I have (and it's typical for me to increase word count in later drafts, as opposed to what seems the norm for many writers). I really am excited about this novel, I just don't feel that excitement at the moment. It'll come. I'll do a brush up of the final chapters to show them to critique groups, and then I'll bury it for a few months before I come back to it. How strange. What will I work on while it's buried?
So last week sometime I mentioned how I was struggling with finishing the last chapter. I got that finished pretty soon after posting, but I wasn't ready to let myself celebrate, because then I moved on to the epilogue (which I decided really was necessary). I finished that over the weekend, I think...but then I still wasn't ready to let myself celebrate because when I was at about chapter 15 or so I realized that I needed to insert an additional chapter earlier but put it off until the end. So a couple nights ago I finished a scene within that chapter, and yesterday I just had it sitting open all day, not sure what to do with it. It was much shorter than any of the other chapters and seemed to need one more scene...of something. But I couldn't decide what.
So I'm declaring the first draft done. If it needs another scene, that can come in the second draft. Can I celebrate yet? I'm don't quite feel like it--there's so much I know I want to work on during the next phase that I'm in one of those this-is-a-bunch-of-crap phases. And I don't think it's quite real that the first draft is done. Maybe that'll hit me sometime over the weekend, and I'll feel elated.
Final word count is 120k, half again as long as either of the other two manuscripts I have (and it's typical for me to increase word count in later drafts, as opposed to what seems the norm for many writers). I really am excited about this novel, I just don't feel that excitement at the moment. It'll come. I'll do a brush up of the final chapters to show them to critique groups, and then I'll bury it for a few months before I come back to it. How strange. What will I work on while it's buried?
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