First Draft COMPLETE!

Wow.

So, yeah, I just finished writing my first draft, and the moment I wrote those last words, I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment, relief, and then oddly… sadness.

I know I’m not anywhere near done with working on my novel, but the actual telling of the story is complete. My characters have grown, developed, triumphed, despaired, found love, and some have died. I don’t want to let them go. At least, not yet. 🙂

As for my manuscript, it’s not perfect (in fact, far from it), but now I have a novel – something to work with. 🙂

It’s in its weakest form… the first 10 chapters kind of drag, there’s a sideline plot problem in the middle chapters that I need to re-work because it’s coming off like crap, but overall, I’m pleased.

I’ve had two wonderful pre-readers giving me feedback all the way through, & now one more who’s going to read my first rough draft (I feel so bad for her! 😉

But it’s what I need, so that I know where to go with my revisions.

But that brings me to something else – one of the things I realized is that when I “finish” my novel (meaning, get it into what I think is publishing form), I have no idea how to proceed next. Do I find an agent? Do I start sending my book to editors? Do I self-publish (I’d rather not).

I mean, I ‘ve focused all of my energy on writing – I didn’t really think about what happens *after*

I guess this is going to be quite the learning experience.

And I must say, I’m excited!