Yesterday I finished the first draft of the fantasy story. It came in at 93,631 words, so my revised goal of 93,000 words was pretty close to the actual word count.
Normally I feel a sense of relief, and certainly a sense of accomplishment, when I finish a first draft. But this time, I felt sad. I like the fantasy characters very much, so I’ll miss our daily time together. Editing the story won’t be the same. It’ll be akin to watching videos of people, rather than being with them.
I like the Rymellan characters too, but when I finish a Rymellan story, I know I’ll soon “see” the characters again. Not so with the fantasy characters, but we may meet again in the future. I tied up the fantasy story with a neat little bow, but I left myself a couple of hooks I can pick up later, should I decide to write another story with the same characters. I suspect I eventually will.
For the past several months, I’ve worked on the fantasy between 9 and 11 every morning. I felt at a loose end this morning when it sank in that I don’t have to do that anymore. I’ll start to edit the fantasy next week, but I don’t have to edit two hours a day to make my deadline. I won’t have any trouble filling the extra free time, though. By this time next week, I’ll be back to wishing there were more than 24 hours in a day!
I hope to take a few books off my “to read” pile, which has grown considerably. I’m currently working my way through Oprah by Kitty Kelley.
Enjoy your weekend.
