Um, yeah, so… I have a first draft. Or, I suppose, one could call it a 900th draft but the first one that actually has an ending. A real ending. One that maybe, sort of, works. There were definite moments of delight in writing it, when a line or an idea fell into place, but I haven’t read the whole thing yet so I don’t know how well it all holds together.

I said that I was going to send it out to three people without reading it, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to do that. I don’t know who the three people would be and I hate to waste some of my best copy-readers on a version that might suck. Also, I hate to waste anyone’s time on a version that might suck. But I definitely know that I shouldn’t start reading it myself for at least a couple of weeks. I need a little distance.

Along the way this week while I was eking out word after painful word — I wrote every day but deleted most of what I wrote as I went — I did some editing of earlier parts. The section that I put an “abysmal” comment on a few weeks back? It was still abysmal. I’ve fixed it, I think, but there’s a definite character motivation issue there that I might not have solved.

And I think some of the timing might be flawed. Some ideas might be out of order because of how long I spent writing, and some scenes that made sense… well, you know, I think for the moment I’m going to stop ripping it apart and criticizing myself. I finished it.

I FINISHED!

Also of note, Z took her last antibiotic today and ate three small meals.

And I got an email from a listener — the first person (that I know of, anyway) that listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it. Yay!

What a lovely day it is. πŸ™‚