‘F’ is for Finished, as in done for the day,
‘I’ is for Iterations, no more will they play,
‘N’ is for Numbers, at the top of the page,
‘A’ is for Anger, no more I will rage.
‘L’ is for Last as in no more drafts never; hooray for FATE, done now and forever!
Woo hoo! The FATE manuscript is done, done, and DONE. I did my happy dance at about noon today, and I’m taking the weekend off to kick back, and catch up on my reading so I can vote for the Hugo Awards.
I finished the first draft of the manuscript in October of 2010. The 4th draft went to first readers in November, and a 5th draft followed a month later. Early feedback from agents sent me back to the trenches, and I submitted a partial 8th draft to a writing workshop in April. After the workshop, I did a huge rewrite, and sent that 9th draft to a freelance editor in April. While I waited for the editor feedback, I took a class on editing, and started another major rewrite in June. I got the editor feedback just before I finished the draft, and folded the editor suggestions into my 10th and ultimately final draft.
Word count started out at about 93,000 words, and has ended up at a pretty solid 74,000. Much less than I’d expected, by a long shot, but I am satisfied that every chapter, scene, page, paragraph and sentence is working hard and absolutely needs to be there. I wish the number was a little closer to 80,000, but done is done.
Well done! Time for me to get my butt into gear and write some more!
Wagging Tales – Blog for Writers