At 8:20 this morning, I wrote "The End" on the rough draft of the book. This is after staying up all night because the last section was flowing in a way I hadn't ever experienced before.
The feeling of finishing is... strange. After sleeping / resting today after finishing, I woke up and immediately started feeling weird that I wasn't writing. Disoriented. I've been pushing so hard to write (while still running the construction company, and, of course, family stuff) for the last few months, to finally hit the finish line feels surreal. Like I've misplaced a limb somewhere, maybe just in the other room.
Now starts the next phase: the edit. The first part of the book is fairly well polished, but I'll be spending the next month doing a final edit / polish in order to turn it in by the due date (Nov. 30th). "Final" in the sense that this is the edit prior to turning it in to my agent and editor.
(Okay, full confession -- I was going to wait until at least tomorrow before starting the edit because you're "supposed" to take a break and celebrate, but I've already started on the edit this evening. What can I say? I don't deal well with non-writing, limb-leaving-in-the-other-room.)
Posted by toni at October 23, 2005 01:51 AMohmygoodness! I'm sooooooo excited for you!!!
Is finishing a project like this sorta like....
Knowing you just had your eyeglasses on and you took em off and now you are wandering about the house searching for them, going from room to room, feeling like you've lost your mind, patting down yourself checking your pockets, searching the fridge AND the bathroom, dumping out your purse in the hallway, only to pick everything up and put it back in your purse where it belongs then standing back upright to find that you are standing in front of the hall mirror and discover that they've been sitting on your head the whole time?
Or does that only happen to me?
Posted by: Shannon at October 23, 2005 08:42 AMYay, yay, yay! I can't WAIT to read it. Congratulation, Toni!
I know exactly what you mean about pushing. Last weekend saw me holed up in a hotel in Atlanta trying desperately to finish. Unfortunately, I only got about thirty or forty (or fifty) pages from the end of the revision and then had to stop. (This is sort of a hybrid -- revision with elements of ground-up rewrite, so it's taking me FOREVER.) Then, death in the family. I'm hoping to pull an all-nighter and get through it sometime this week.
Posted by: gwenda at October 23, 2005 09:53 AMCongratulations!
And who cares about rules. The only rule is to do what works for you - no?
Posted by: Melly at October 23, 2005 10:41 AMcongrats. i plan to someday be able to write those words: The End. until then i keep bumbling about.
Posted by: Theo at October 23, 2005 03:49 PMoh oh oh...
I have the cure for all of those uncomfortable twinges and pangs and feelings of loss and displacement.
Do not finish anything.
Ever.
That was your mistake.
Next time you'll know better.
And you'll thank me.
best,
Leticia M. Loozer
AA platinum member
artery cutters anonymous
Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! That's great news Toni, I can't wait to read it!
Posted by: Daisy at October 27, 2005 04:49 PM