The Best Feeling So Far

Finished the first draft of The Project!  I think the Epilogue turned out nicely, tied the ending together the way I wanted it to.  I've never been so emotional for the end of a project.  I felt like simultaneously doing a dance and crying at the same time, so it just ended up being a huge lump in my throat for the whole time I was writing the ending. My hands started shaking at the end.  It clocks in at 71k words (I stopped counting the 3k words that got accidentally deleted by MS word) and 256 pages double spaced Times News Roman (none of that Courier nonsense for me).

Now the serious work begins, crafting this lump of coal into a shiny diamond.  I already edited the first chapter according to the critiques I got from "1,000 Words," and it reads oh so much better.  It hurt a little to get criticism (you mean you don't think my baby is perfect?) but wow, it made a big difference.  I have to thank everybody for input.  I'm going to set the whole manuscript aside for a few days now, but I'm just itching to start editing.  What a great feeling.

So, we'll see if I can concentrate on my new projects this week to keep my mind off this one.  Nevertheless, the excitement will tide me over several days.  :-)

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Now I have definite insomnia.  I guess it is good insomnia, though? It won't be good insomnia when I finally fall sleep and drag my butt to Western Civ tomorrow morning only to keel over drooling when I get there.