I am coming out of the tunnel this week. You see, last week was “tunnel vision” week. I HAD to get the first draft of the novel DONE. I lived it, ate it, breathed it. Now it is finished. (apologies to friends and family who thought I must be dead.) I mailed it off to my editor on Saturday. Now… I wait. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I’ve been a closet writer my whole life, but this is the first time I’ve had anyone Pro look at my stuff. I have no clue what to expect.
A few people have been asking me about the book so I will try to answer your questions. It is a work of fiction. I did about 7 re-writes to get a completed first draft. This took me 3 1/2 months and I usually wrote for a minimum of 2 hours a day. I also took a week off at points when the story wasn’t making sense anymore because I would stare at it for too long. The reason I was able to do it so quickly is that the novel is only 31,500 words. An average novel is 90,000. So this is really more of an extended novella. This is ok though because of the way the story is being told. (more on that some other time). For me the ending was the hardest part. I think I changed it 3 or 4 times. I’m still not thrilled with it but it’s getting closer. The writing got increasingly difficult towards completing the draft. This is because I’ve looked at it and reworked it so many times that I can’t tell if it even makes sense anymore. Once I hit this point I just busted my butt to get the draft done. It needs a fresh pair of eyes on it now.
Writing this novel has been a thrill ride on many levels. I learned a lot about myself and my dedication to something I believe in. Also, I was constantly fascinated by how the story unfolded in my mind. I started with a certain vision but as I began writing, the characters seemed to take on a life of their own. They ended up going in different directions than I planned for them. It sounds sillly, but they came alive to me. When I had to kill off one of my characters I actually cried! (don’t tell anyone about that) The other surprise was how the story ended up being much darker than I originally planned. I didn’t mean to go dark. It just “went there” and I had to allow it to go that way. The process was so amazing. This story just breathed life into itself. It was my job to write it all down. That’s how it felt.
I now wait on pins and needles to see what my editor says. Then back to re-writing. I am absolutely dedicated to doing as many re-writes as needed to make it the best it can be. But for now it’s nice to be back amoung the living and able to think about something else 
If you want a second set of eyes after you get it back from the editor – just let me know! You are awesome, and I know it’s going to be an outstanding piece of work!
Good for you! I hope you hear sooner than later.