And being the dork I am, I totally wrote the date and time at the bottom of my hastily written list of plot points. As a side note, I also used to write down the date and time I finished coloring pages in a coloring book. You say weird, I say efficient and organized.
2:58pm 1/26/2013. Finished!
As anticipated, there was a bizarrely uncoordinated dance of joy with The Toddler and The Baby (shout out to my work friends: dance break!). There was pancakes (flavored with almond extract because I couldn’t get the vanilla extract open). There was ice cream. There’s wine chilling in the fridge.
And I kind of spent the rest of the afternoon bummed.
Even The Hubs was out of sorts. He kept looking at me and would say, “Why don’t you go work on your novel….oh, that’s right. You’re done.”
I’m done.
Perplexing. Well, obviously it’s not done. Now comes the hard part: the part that’s going result in the annihilation of semicolons and fragmented sentences (and we all know how much I love me some fragmented sentences). There’s going back through and making absolutely sure all my historically accurate research is historically accurate and not Wikipedia accurate. I have been trying my hardest not to go back and read previous sections because, really, I’m my own worst critic. If I read it one hundred times, I’m going to convince myself it sounds like Gone with the Wind fan fiction written by a twelve-year-old.
For those keeping score, here’s my stats. Well, not my stats. The novel’s stats. My stats are much less exciting.
Anything You Ask of Me
- Pages: 309
- Words: 84,522
- Total Editing time: 12,983 minutes
- Song I Listened to the Most When Writing: Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin
So…yeah, here we are. Now I edit. And edit again? Who knows. Actually, I just took a really good workshop on developing Facebook fan pages and twitter profiles. Theoretically I could let the novel sit and stew awhile and work on those projects. And when I say sit and stew awhile, what I mean is I’ll probably start editing tomorrow. We all know that.
And shameless self promotion, you can check out my underdeveloped Facebook Fan Page here. If nothing else, the background picture is really, really awesome. Not the picture of my face. The picture of a fence across the field where Pickett’s Charge took place. And yes, I took it with my iPhone. I’m not sure I could survive with my iPhone. Seriously, I’ve left for work without my lunch. Without my shoes (don’t ask). But never without my phone.
Anyway guys, look, I am so freaking excited. It’s a little out of control. I’m going to find an excuse to celebrate finishing the novel for the next, oh I don’t know, week and a half. Until I eventually finish editing and we’re going to have to go through all of this again–but like I need an excuse to eat cupcakes and drink wine.
Let the editing commence (but after I sober up)!
Well Done Heather! Keep us posted on how the edit goes.
Thank you! It’s going to be an adventure. I like to edit from hard copy. I have a feeling it’s going to look like a massacre took place!
Finishing the first draft of a manuscript is always a wonderful, liberating feeling. Best of luck with the editing!
Thanks! I did a little last night and let me tell you. Waaay too many semicolons in there. It was horrifying!
Hehe. I happen to like semicolons! But, yeah, if they’re overstaying their welcome, maybe a period here or an en dash there might improve the flow. (>^-‘)>
Awesome!!! Enjoy the great feeling of completing something…though I can totally relate to you on all points about editing & polishing. 😉
Enjoy the cupcakes {& wine!}!!!!
Thank you so much!! I ended up making Snickers and Rolo stuffed sugar cookies which seemed equally celebratory! I’m excited to start editing, and what better way than with cookie in hand?
Applause, applause!!! Proofread it, edit, trim, polish until you have memorized every one of those 80,000 plus words that you’ve written.
Thank you so much!! I am so excited. The edit is intimidating. I think I’m going to print it and work from a hard copy first. I always catch my mistakes better that way!
Yep. I agree. Hard copy edit, definitely. Besides, it’s always fun to work with with a red pen – it’ll make you feel powerful.
Go Heather!! Well done. Fantastic news. No excuses needed here either where cup cakes and wine are concerned.. I’m guessing you’re already stuck into the editing but some do say if you can let it ferment, even a week, that will help you. Mine have been fermenting rather longer..
Thank you! I started a high level edit last night because I felt…empty. But I feel better today and probably will just move on to a new idea this week and start my real edit next weekend. I say that now. I have a feeling my novel is my “literary cupcake.” I can’t stay away!
Woohoo!!!! Is this the Civil War novel that you were writing when I lived in Kansas? How do you feel? Like a weight has been lifted off your shoulder? It will be nice for as long as you want and then you can dive headfirst into your edits. But, forget that for now and celebrate!!!! I’m proud of you Heather!
This is actually the novel I started for Nano! I gave up on the other one years ago lol. I felt really depressed last night. It was exhilarating at first, but as the day wore on and I realized I had no writing to do, I got bummed. I started a really high level edit last night and felt better lol! I missed them!
There is nothing like the feeling of finishing a story… Then the edit begins! I wish you the best of luck 🙂 xx
Thank you so much! I haven’t read the beginning in quite some time, so it’s been like a trip to a place you used to live–familiar, and kind of sad. I bought myself a new pen just for editing purposes!