I’m finished.
I have just successfully completed my first ever second draft/full rewrite of a novel.
The total count comes in at 91,322 words, which is almost a 40,000 word improvement on the first draft – that’s a lot more novel, a lot more writing.
It feels surreal, I almost don’t even know how to go about describing it. It feels really darn amazing though, I’ve actually done it, and I think as a whole the story is a lot better than it was the first time around. I’m eager to get some opinions on it though! lol only then will I know, because it’s not like I’ve stopped to read through it during the rewriting process, it just feels like it’s a better story.
I almost can’t believe I am done. I mean, every day (pretty much) for the last month and a half I’ve been sitting here, writing away at this thing. And tomorrow, I won’t be. Now that’s strange…
But it feels great, it really does. I am really happy to finally be finished with this draft. Excited that it means I can now move on and do something else. Proud of myself for sticking to my goals – both the daily word count, and the whole finishing this before playing with something else goal.
I’ve learned a great deal through this process. I’m much more of a planner now than I have ever been before and I KNOW now that just because you know what’s going to happen it doesn’t mean that the writing of it’s not going to be fun. It can be fun, a great deal of fun in fact, and I am sure that this will benefit all my future writings.
It makes me look forward to the time when I rewrite some of my other novels, ASHE in particular. If this one added 40K, I can only imagine that ASHE will almost triple in size through rewriting, lol, that’s a pretty cool thing to think about.
Anyways, I must go and pick up my little girl from preschool. Tonight we dine on Pizza! Well done me.
Yay, I’m so proud of you! I knew you could do it. Once the shock wears off, you’ll feel pretty damn fantastic (would you believe it took me three tries to spell that word right). I’m glad that you’ve become less afraid of planning, and that you’re beginning to understand why it can be a good thing. You make a girl proud!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is so awesome to hear and good job on celebrating with some pizza.
Congrats on reaching that goal :] And mmm, enjoy the pizza… I will be ordering some tonight too, except ours is because we’ve packed up everything else in the house and need something to eat!
Rewriting has always been much more difficult for me than writing that first draft. But you feel like you’ve accomplished so much when you have it done. And there’s nothing quite the feeling that your manuscript has improved…other than getting it published. And the step you just took makes it that much more likely to get published. Good for you!
So true, am very excited to get into the next round of edits in the next week!