THE END!

There’s nothing like writing “THE END” (must be all caps, for me at least) on a first draft, and I wrote just that this morning! Yippee!

Of course, there’s still much to accomplish during revisions, but I have my story, verbose as it may be. I overwrite my first drafts — too much description, too much repetition, too much explanation of what I’ve effectively shown — but I don’t mind. I have tons of material with which to work: a comfort.

Some novelists underwrite their first drafts — so lean they gotta pig out on words during revisions to add complications and subplots and descriptions and character development.

Either way, right? As long as we have that first draft in hand!

Now, I’ll enjoy a summer vacation (woo hoo) — for a few weeks at least — if I can possibly stand the hiatus. I’m going to…what am I going to do with myself while my first draft cools off?

Oh my, oodles of open-endedness. My mind just went blank…

I’ve been working on this thing for a year. I’m so relieved I feel like melting. I am melting. I am, in fact, already melted. Melted feels delicious.

0 comments on “THE END!

  • Congratulations! Melted is the perfect description for it. That’s exactly what that feels like! Enjoy the summer…reading is always good! Biking in Portland is most excellent. Friends. Food. Blissful Nothing! Job well done!

    Reply
  • Hooray! Well done, Lisa. I can only imagine how good that must feel. I hope to finish my first draft before my family’s summer holiday. I am looking forward to the melting feeling.

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  • Oh, Lisa, congratulations! I think there is no better moment in writing–wait, in LIFE–than the one of writing THE END on a first draft. Especially after a full year of hard work, it’s just such a relief to know that there even IS an end. I am so far from being able to do that–I’m crazy with envy!!

    Hope you enjoy taking some time off to rest and restock the brain files, before it’s time to pick up the hedge clippers and go pruning your draft. A perfect time of year to get some time off, too!

    Reply
  • Can feel the joy all the way over here! Nice picture with it, too. It kind of means the “beginning” of something, now…the editing (I LOVE editing.) Enjoy the giddiness and the time off! Bravo!

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  • Lisa, congratulations! It must feel wonderful to have all those words safely tucked away!

    Enjoy your rest period, and come back to it with renewed vigor and great ideas!

    Reply
  • Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!

    I also tend to overwrite my first drafts, and then the second draft turns into more of a sculpting session, it’s actually pretty exciting and fun to do.

    Typing THE END: awesome!

    Reply
  • Thanks, Becca — that’s a nice way of phrasing it, the “words safely tucked away.” Still waiting for the renewed vigor, alas…

    Nova: I’ll be sculpting all right! 🙂

    Reply

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