Big News - X2

Last night, at approximately 8:00 p.m. (central time zone) I finished my tenth complete manuscript.

Now, if you have ever written a novel - a manuscript is just an unpublished novel - you know how good it feels to wrap one up. No, good is a terrible word here. Let's try - great! Nah, that's still short of the true feeling. How about this:

I have been released from the shackles of creation, allowed to step beyond the page and breathe - as if for the first time bringing air into my tired lungs.

Yeah, over the top. But when you're in my spot, it's really how you feel.

This one was tough

To finish, that is. I don't know what went wrong. A month ago I was within 20,000 words of the end. Wrapping things up, your daily word output can easily be 2,000 a day. But I languished over finishing it. The ending was firm in my mind; I had memorized every scene, every word of dialog.

Yet, I drug my feet.

Then this past weekend I put the petal firmly on the floorboard and finished the beast. The last two full days of writing produced 7,000 and 6,000 words respectively.

And now it's done.

And I'm Happy, Yet Sad

Happy because I have a decent rough draft of a pretty darn good story. The ending has a few twists that worked out perfectly when placed on paper. The final scene is short, yet poignant.

Sad because I'm done creating this particular stand alone novel. And now it's time to let the tale stew and fester, alone on my hard drive for a month or so. And then starts the editing and rewriting process.

Most writers despise the second part of the writing process: create, edit, publish - edit is in the middle of that list. But here your creation, my creation, becomes more than just a rough draft. Here, in this long process, it truly becomes a novel. And by the end of this stage - six months perhaps, maybe longer - you will have a publishable piece of literature.

What's it about, lake?

This novel is a stand alone. There will be no sequels or prequels. It is a dystopian creation, somewhere along the lines of Orwell's 1984. Along those lines. Be sure to note that phrase carefully. I did not rewrite a modern version of Orwell's classic. I wrote my own tale.

This manuscript came in at a little over 100,000 words. Most likely the final version will be somewhere in the low 90s. Remember what Stephen King tells us: 

2nd Draft = 1st Draft minus 10%

Big News - Part II

This past week, visits to my blog passed the 10,000 mark!

I have been blogging since February 13th, 2014. Seventeen months or so. For the first little bit (six months) I posted something twice a week. Fort the last year or so it's been once a week. But still, I couldn't be more thrilled.

Thank You to each and every person who has read my blog. 


Until next week, join me in reading the Games of Thrones (Book One - that's the actual title). It's only 850 some pages long, shouldn't take but a few late nights, right?


e a lake