Are there more beautiful words in the English language??? I think not. Not if you’re a writer…not if you’re a writer who has struggled to write a book the way I have struggled to write this one.
I pushed hard on it all weekend and got close to the end, but didn’t quite make it. And then for some reason yesterday I let myself get distracted most of the day. After writing close to 30 pages over the weekend, I only managed to write 2 the whole day yesterday. So I decided when I got home from yoga last night (all calm and centered!) I would stay up until I could type T-H-E E-N-D. It worked for sarah_prineas a couple nights ago (and she may not have even needed the yoga to get herself into the state where she could finish)…and it worked for me last night. (sarah_prineas was only up until 9:30…I was up until 11:30.)
I celebrated by: 1) writing this blog entry (I decided no more blogging until I got to the end of this book…); 2) taking College Student out for sushi; and 3) riding my 22-mile bike route (well, actually I could only go 20 miles because the high river water blocked the last two miles…I had to detour around closed trails earlier in my ride, too. And the funny thing is I was actually out riding when the water rose up over the bike trail behind Taco Bell a couple weeks ago. It was the weirdest thing…everything was fine when I went through there the first time. The water was over the bank, but it wasn’t on the trail. It took me 20 minutes to get from there to City Park, make my circle and come back. In that 20 minutes, the water had risen so far over the trail that I didn’t dare go through it. At all. And I will go through SOME water…but once it looks like it would cover half my tire, I don’t go through it…because water is usually deeper than it looks…and you don’t mess around with river water.).
That leaves me with just under two weeks to revise before I have to turn this in to my editor. I have a couple of trusted readers who are nice enough to read a manuscript that I know is not my best work yet (not to mention read it QUICKLY) and offer me advice on what to focus on in these next two weeks, so that will help. At least it’s ALL there now…a full and complete manuscript. There was a time I wasn’t sure this day would ever come.
Good luck!! I’m a few weeks away from my own “The End” and it seems like a long journey already. Enjoy the great sense of being finished (well except for editing).
Hope you’re doing well!! I’m signed up again for LA/Nationals. If you ever go again let me know!
LJS
I will! I’d love to room with you again!!!
Woo hoo!!! Congratulations on finishing the book! Boy, it’s been quite a trek, hasn’t it!?
Probably a good thing you didn’t bike on a flooded City Park path. One of ’em has developed a deep sink hole during the last couple of days. Eek!
Hey, you should go by that sink hole NOW…it’s not just a hole in the middle of the path anymore…it’s expanded the whole width of the sidewalk!
I know! I thought of you today when I ran past it. Yike! I tried to run down the path further on, along the edge of the river, but had to turn back. Even the grass on the other side is flooded.
So now that you’re done with the book, what’re you going to do now?
Oh, I’m not “done” yet. I just got to the end. I’m going to be tinkering with it until B. and I go to London. And then I will probably have revisions from my editor waiting for me when I get back. When I’m done with THAT, though…I’ve been talking with my other publisher about a couple of different projects. I think I’ve got a little writing addiction going, too.
Congrats, Dori! What a great feeling. Have fun revising.
I find I enjoy the revision process a little more each time…writing is a lot easier when you have something to work with than when you’re staring at a blank screen. At least, it is for me…(and I would not have said that 5-10 years ago)
It’s the BEST feeling! Congrats!
It IS! I’ve written more on this book in the last three weeks than I’ve written in the last six months. Seeing my editor in person helped immensely! (I think I was letting confusion I was feeling toward this editor get in the way of my writing)
Was she what you expected? 😉
I had met her twice before, so yes…she was what I expected. The problem was I had forgotten what to expect. I had forgotten how well we’d clicked on the phone that first time and how well we usually worked together on a book. Spending a weekend together reminded me of that.
Wonderful!