For the past thirty days, I’ve been consumed by a story. A contemporary cozy, to be exact. This afternoon, after 77588 words, I typed ###: the end. Boy, I’m glad that’s over! But that’s just the first draft. Now comes the hard part: editing.
I plan to let it sit for a week or so, just to let my mind clear. I’ve got plenty to do on other phases of the tale. Because I wrote in first person, this was not only pretty easy for me to put down, but I couldn’t get the damn thing out of my head when I wasn’t actually at the keyboard. So, consumed I was, day and night. I’m glad that phase is over.
Editing something you’re basically happy with is difficult. Why fix a good thing? It’s hard to take off the creator hat and put on the destroyer hat, but getting a quality product requires both. I’ll be glad when that’s done, too.
August 4, 2018: I’ve been mucking about with this ms since the first post. In the process, I have totally rewritten the last 25%, I have changed who the villain is, I have changed hair color and gender of several characters, I have given someone Alzheimer’s, and I have drunk at least six bottles of wine. I’ve also got a word count of 84327. And it still isn’t done. Charles Dickens and I have a lot in common; Dickens would edit works that had just been delivered from his publisher and were going out on the street for sale. But I have sent out queries.