Done!
Yay and yay and double yay.
The first (incredibly rough) draft is now done and dusted. Complete at 68,000 words (until I go in and ruthlessly cull) The Guardians of Lost Lore, Book One of the Emporium Sisters Escapades is now... done. My first completed manuscript in way way too long.
I didn't actually get it done yesterday. I finished it, blearry eyed and coffeed up at 12.46am this morning. And I wasn't actually wearing my lucky PJ's. I got back from dropping the kids off and it was so damn freezing that instead of changing back into PJs I spent the day still rugged up in the big bear coat and scarf, I'd gone out in, and even then the temperature dropped to Arctic if I moved 3 feet from the heater, so basically, I didn't. My plans for coffee, cafe and a monster pack of minties failed, as I realised too late my Beloved still had my bankcard from when his card was less than healthy and there was no milk in the house. So I had to make do with the 3 in one hazlenut chocolate stuff I'd got from Aldi and had been thinking of chucking out until he came home and went on an emergency mission. The best laid plans!
But, on the plus side... my Beloved had remembered to cut my connection to the internet so my only form of procrastination was Foxtel. (On which subject have you seen the completely heart-rending documentary about the London girl who went back to visit relatives in Afghanistan? - I bawled most of the way through it. How can that kind of stuff happen in this world? How can people treat other people like that? But I digress.)
May I just say (again, I know!) Done.
I hadn't thought I could actually do it. I thought I didn't have the time. I was wrong. I'd just been too scared to sit down and try.
Of course the first draft is the easy part. Sitting down and editing it, going through draft after draft, getting fresh eyes on it and then pulling it into shape... that's the hardest bit.
But it still feels good to have the sheer bulk of it, sitting patiently in my computer, the lump of coal waiting to be turned into a diamond. (I hope!)
