The plaque says, “and they lived happily ever after”
Whenever I finish up a novel, either a new one or a revision of one, I always seem to rush the ending. Then later, I have to go back and make it bigger, broader, fuller, and more satisfying. So today I neared the end of a major revision on my Work In Progress. I’m essentially two chapters away from finishing it, and I know what happens. However, I just knew I would blow through it so I could type THE END, but then I realized this was not the same as MISSION ACCOMPLISHED if I have to go back later and fix it anyway so how is that really satisfying? I decided to take a new approach. I stopped writing and I printed out the manuscript. Tomorrow I will sit down with it and read it to see what I have. And then, after I’m done reading and revising with my red pen (and probably cutting about 5000 words), I will write the ending. And I’ll take my time…ahhh…time…there’s so much of it in publishing. I wonder why we writers hurry so much?
I’m feeling pretty pleased with this novel. I wrote the first draft just over a year ago and then got busy with other projects. I started this major revision over the summer and finished about half of it before I had to stop and make all the cuts to RESTORING HARMONY for my first deadline. Chances are good it will end up sitting around for a while as I’m expecting my first editorial letter in the next few weeks, and I think that will be good for it. I’m hoping to finish it sometime this year, but that really depends entirely on what I have to do to RH and the deadlines I’ll have. I would say that on a scale of 1 to 100, one being conception of the idea and one hundred being when I hand it off to my agent to get his thoughts, the novel is at about 96. Not bad, eh? I’m pretty pleased. And I didn’t even have to type THE END to feel satisfied today! Just printing it out gave me what I needed.
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